Mirror Images
by The Royal Protector
Summary: What happens when you awaken in a world thought fiction? You adapt. What happens when anywhere you turn only challenges appear? You overcome. What happens when the entire world is trying its best to kill you? You survive, because that's what humans do. SI. Rated M for language and gore. STORY DISCONTINUED, REWRITE IS UP
1. Chapter 1

Hello there, I'm The Royal Protector, and you're reading one of my first attempts at fanfiction. I tried writing other ones, but this one seemed the best one.

I feel the need to point out that English is my second language and thus there will be grammatical errors in the story. Any criticism is welcome, as long as it's constructive. As for updates, I have no idea, most likely when I'll have time, but I expect around 1 chapter per week.

EDIT: I'm coming back to earlier chapters, mainly to correct typos and such and tweak the story a bit here and there.

This SI will explore a path that I don't think has been explored before on . It will go more AU as the story goes on, due to interference from the SI, in ways that haven't been written down I think.

"speech"

'thoughts'

*sounds, gunfire, etc.*

(notes, addendums)

(A/N: Authors Note)

Disclaimer: The Mass Effect franchise is **not** mine, only things I own are my OCs.

Mirror Images

Chapter 1: Prologue

You know, falling off a mountain road in my car, waiting to die wasn't how I imagined my weekend. Then again, I kinda deserve it, since I shouldn't have driven (slightly buzzed, I admit) in the mountains at night. Well I guess I should explain the situation, I just got my driver's license and my 18th birthday was closing fast, so naturally I was going to celebrate it like any other person.

Getting absolutely shitfaced with my friends.

To my surprise my friends rented a place in Austria, saying it was far away from everything and it would be nice to do some hiking while we're there. Everything was going great until we ran out of alcohol and 'other' things, anyways, we did a rock, paper, scissors championship, the loser would have to grab things down from the village that was near us. Three guesses who lost, and the first two doesn't count. With a defeated look and mindset I asked for the car keys and started my journey down the mountain. I was doing great until a goddamn deer came out of nowhere and I was forced to pull sideways. Needless to say the car is falling right towards the ground right now, really fast. Now I know three things: one, I'm going to die here, two, I will likely die quickly, because the ground looked really rocky, and three, I fucking hate deer.

My internal musings were cut short by the ground, which the car has reached.

Ever heard of the stories where people say they saw their lives flash before their eyes? Total bullshit. Although the part about the white light is kinda true. I'm in a milky white and gray place just… levitating I guess. I look around only to see the same scenery: foggy white and grey, I look down and I almost have a heart attack as I notice that I have no body… I'm just a cloud of…something. I'm about to ask what is going on when my body flares up with so much pain I didn't think it was possible, Fortunately as fast it came the pain goes away and I feel myself settle down.

Wait.

Body?

I force ?my? eyes open (which was hard as hell) and see that I'm in a white/blue room. I notice that I'm in a white bed next to some beeping machines. I smell the air and the smell of antiseptic hits my nerves.

'Ah. A hospital of course, maybe I didn't die there and my friends called an ambulance' I thought. I looked around, searching for a call button to indicate that I'm awake, after about ten seconds of finding nothing I glance down to my arm and see two things: one, my skin was a bit paler than it should be 'maybe I was out for a long time or something' I mused. Oh, and two, a tube attached to my arm and the beeping machine (which I'm confident is a heart monitor). Gripping the tube I tear it out and the machine flatlines instantly (I know that wasn't very nice of me and that should have given about half a dozen doctors a heart attack, but I don't really care). Sure enough a really startled looking nurse rushes in and looks at me sitting in the bed like she saw the devil. After a couple seconds of uncomfortable silence and a shocked expression (from the nurse) later I decided to start a conversation, hoping my rusty german skills were still functioning.

"Guten Tag, Krankenschwester" I said trying to remember my german classes.

"…What? Never mind you're awake- I gotta call Dr.B'lezea." and with that she stormed out of the room probably to call a doctor, leaving myself to my devices. 'Okay, I wasn't that bad, the rushing out was totally uncalled for' I thought to myself.

"Well that was weird." I said after a couple seconds 'and what did she mean by I'm awake? I get that I was probably knocked out or something but that doesn't warrant that kind of reaction' I thought to myself. Looking around the room once more I realize that this place is advanced, and I mean touch-screens-and-blue-lighting-everywhere advanced. 'Austrians' 'probably they have a lot more spent on healthcare than we do.' I thought. As I said that the door to my room swooshed open (oh yeah. those too) and walked through the nurse and-

"Mr. Carter, I see that you're awake." said the… asari?!

' .Fuck.'

"We didn't think you would be up so soon, it was much more likely that you awaken in about 4-5 months." said the nurse.

I must've looked like I saw a ghost, because then the nurse said "Are you okay? you really don't look good."

'Yep, never trying weed and alcohol at the same time, because I see a goddamn ASARI in front of me. How the hell?!'

They must've noticed I was focused elsewhere, because the doctor said "I think he's experiencing a mild shock after awakening." "Better we give him some water, food and some time to rest."

"Yes, I think that's a good idea."

'Maybe I have an idea what's going on, but I'll have to test it' I thought. "Wait, what's the date?" I inquired as they were about to step out.

They turned to look at me, then at each other, then back at me and said " It's June 29. 2172, I'm sorry, but you were in a coma for the last two months after the eezo carrier incident." Said the nurse somberly.

'Yep, I've read enough fanfiction to realize what is happening' I was in the Mass Effect universe. That can be either very good news or very bad… I really hope it's the former. I started to feel panic rising inside of me. 'Not now, I need to be in my game now, I can panic later' I scolded myself. Well, time to play dumb.

"Sorry, but I think I have a slight memory loss. Could you tell me where I am and what accident were you talking about? I asked, hoping to gather some information on my current situation.

The nurse thought for a second before replying. "Well, as I said earlier, there was an accident involving an eezo carrier exploding above the colony world of Tyrole. The resulting shockwave and eezo contamination killed everyone". "Well, except you" she informed me with sorrow in her voice, no wonder, an entire colony dying must mean a lot of body bags.

"As for where you are, after SAR teams found and stabilized you, they took you to the nearest, best equipped hospital, which happened to be the Huerta Memorial hospital on the Citadel" explained the doctor, while the nurse fought back tears. 'She must have had someone on the colony' I wondered. The nurse soon excused herself out of the room, probably to cry, then the doctor turned back to me.

"If you don't mind, I would like to run some scans to determine whether you can be released." She continued and after my nod she proceeded to scan me with her omni-tool and all the while writing notes. 'That's soo cool, I wonder if I have one too' I pondered. After a few seconds of trying various methods to activate it (not that I knew how to) I was about to give up when an idea occurred to me. I focused on my left arm and 'willed' my omni-tool on. To my satisfaction a familiar orange glow surrounded my arm. 'Success!' I fist pumped internally.

'Okay, let's see what secrets this thing holds.' I thought as my fingers were dancing on the holographic screen (it actually felt like a solid object!) and trying out the different options.

About a minute and various features later I found the user details and started reading.

 _Name: William Carter_

 _Age: 17_

 _Date of birth: July 1st 2154_

 _Place of birth: New York, Earth_

 _Current residence: New Geneva, Tyrole_

There were other numbers that were probably important, but my mind got stuck on these 5 lines, I probably just sat in place and stared at the screen for god knows how long.

'I am… someone else….?' I managed to question someone, anyone that might have listened, but to my misery nobody answered. After waiting a moment the doctor (Whom I completely forgot was there the whole time) spoke up.

"Hmm, your body is surprisingly intact, no muscle degeneration, immune system and-" she flashed a light into my eyes, which caused me to rapidly close my eyes and look elsewhere. "- eye implant fully functional, hearing obviously functioning" She listed off, ticking points on her datapad.

"Okay, it seems you have fully recovered from any effects the explosion had on your body, I think the coma even helped your body regenerate any damage." She announced happily.

"That's certainly good to hear, when can I leave?" I asked cautiously. I knew I probably had to spend at least a couple of days in this bed just to be sure, but I wanted to get out of there, I never really liked hospitals, too many bad memories I guess.

"Actually, since you're fully recovered you can leave this afternoon." The doc informed me with a smile on her face.

I think my brain stopped for a second because I heard 'afternoon'. "Sorry, but did you just say this afternoon?" I asked confused, that's unusual to say the least.

"Yes, Huerta Memorial is a very busy hospital and you're currently occupying a bed that somebody could use right now, now that I think about it I have six other patients that require my attention" The asari said as she walked towards the door of my room." Oh, and don't worry about the expenses, the Alliance covers it as compensation for the accident, and you can also retrieve your possessions at customer services." She said turning her head towards me, still walking, with that she stepped out, leaving me mouth agape on my bed. That and the reality that I'm in another universe catches up to me and I descent into panic. 'Okay, higher brain functions stopped working.'

Four hours and a mental breakdown later I find myself sitting on a bench near one of the lakes on the presidium. After Dr. B'lezea left I had a sort of WTF moment that lasted a while. Information overload probably. Anyways, when I finally collected myself I left the bed and went to customer services to retrieve 'my' stuff. I got a black Rolex that I apparently got from my grandfather, family heritage probably, clothes that were a mix between a modern and a futuristic style, at first I was a bit skeptical, but after getting dressed everything I had against vanished. It looked good on me and was comfortable as hell. It consisted of dark blue jeans, a dark grey T-shirt, a blue-black jacket and a pair of black shoes. While I was checking myself out in a mirror (graciously provided by some staff) I noticed my new body. I was about 185 cm tall(~6 ft) with a muscular (for a 17 year old) body, my face changed quite a bit as well: my hair was dark brown, bordering full on black, my neck was somewhat thick, cheeks high, medium sized nose and ears and then my eyes…

Remember the part about 'eye implants'? yeaah…

My irises were of a brilliant silver color that had a subtle lighting effect. When I inquired about it to someone they said that I had massive ocular damage and was nearly blind, because apparently I was under about 4 tons of rubble when they found me, when they dug me out there was debris in my eyes that caused profuse bleeding and as they tried to clean it they managed to tear out pieces of my eyes.

I know, delicious.

But, due to modern bionics and medicine I got my perfect 20/20 vision back, so, everything is fine.

All in all, I looked quite charming if I do say so myself.

Back to the present, after I had sat down and checked my omni-tool for messages I was bombarded by a mountain of mail. Most of it was spam, but a few stood out. Few of which were from the Alliance, to summarize them they said that they were terribly sorry and as 'compensation' they covered all the expenses concerning my treatment and deposited 500 000 credits to my account. Another one stated that since my 18th birthday was in a couple of days and thus assigning me to a foster family would be redundant, they 'made' me an adult and updated the database with me.

Good news all in all, I got some starting money and have the rights of an adult.

Then I realized that I'm in MASS fuckin' EFFECT. 'That should be impossible' I stated 'Sure, I've probably read almost every SI out there worth reading, but they were all just stories.' I tried to reason with myself 'Unless…. the car… I died…'

'There is no entity that warned or brought me here as far as I know' I mused.

'Just died and woke up here… maybe…' I thought as an idea popped in mind.

'I reincarnated' I declared ' It makes sense, no entities nor unexplainable happenings, just me, my car and this poor sucker's body I inhabit now, probably died while in coma and I snatched his body.'

'Now… what the hell should I do? In 14 years this galaxy will disintegrate faster than the citizens of Hiroshima if my knowledge could be trusted.' I asked myself since apart from the occasional random person walking by; I was alone in this little corner of the Citadel. And I started sinking down the bench I was currently sitting on. 'When they arrive, billions will die, and the cycle could even go onward if the 'wrong' ending is chosen' I was on the verge of panic at this point, fearing what could come.

As I searched for an answer I turned inwards and listened to what my instincts had to say. It was what I did whenever I was in an uneasy situation, and it never failed me before. This time it told me the most basic instruction ever.

"Adapt. Overcome. Survive" I voiced my thoughts "Do what humans do best in the universe, no matter which."

'Yes' I sat a little straighter at that 'It doesn't matter that the Reapers will come, they can be killed like everything else, I will do my damnest to see this trough and no mountain sized C'thulu cuttlefish will stop me.' I smiled, confidence radiating from me.

'Now, to survive I'll need combat experience, armor, weapons and a job to sustain myself until then.' I listed off. For combat experience I only had paintball and airsoft experience, but that would hardly help me here, I fired a few live weapons and was far from a bad shot, but weapons changed in the last 150 years, so I'm back at square one. As for armor and weapons I would need money, lots of money, like about a million credits for quality stuff and ammo. It all came down to getting a job.

'Let's see, I could become a merc… no, I would get a bad reputation, which would only hinder me when the invasion begins, assassin? No… I don't have the connections nor the experience, C-sec? That could prepare me as well, but no, I hate bureaucratic BS. Bounty hunter? Same reason as being a merc..'

I let out a frustrated sigh as I fail to find a good solution to my problem.

*BEEP-BEEP*

The beeping of my omni-tool wakes me up from my little internal argument and I brought my 'tool up. I inspected it and found that I had a new message, opening it, it read:

 _To: William Carter_

 _From: Human Systems Alliance Navy Recruitment Office_

 _Subject: Recruitment Offer_

 _Mister Carter, we invite you to join the Alliance Navy. The Alliance could always use more good men and women serving and protecting humanity from danger. If you choose to accept our proposal you will go through military training and be part of the Armed Forces. We hope you will consider our offer and make good judgment._

 _For more information, turn to our nearest recruitment office._

 _PS: This message is automated, please do not respond_.

As I finished reading the message I felt myself grinning like an idiot.

'Jackpot' I thought with glee 'Experience, armor, weapons and income source, all check'

'Now, where is the nearest recruitment office?' I muse, bringing up the search engine on my omni-tool (which happens to be Google, don't ask me how it is still around.) and start to look for an office.

After a ten minute search I found out there was no Alliance office on the Citadel, which, in hindsight was obvious and I had to book a shuttle ticket for Arcturus to get to the nearest Recruitment Center. The ticket cost me about a thousand credits (apparently that's a fortune around here) and now I'm sitting in my window seat, looking at the shrinking piece of white dot that is the Citadel. The trip should take about 18 hours, so I will most likely sleep and try to relax while I can. I look to my left and see a female turian sitting next to me, fiddling with her omni-tool. I've spoken a few words with her just for pleasantries and she seemed nice, which is a good sign, considering if I remember correctly there was a strong anti-human sentiment in the games before ME2. As long as no one starts being racist, I'll be a happy camper. Looking back out the window I catch sight of the relay we're heading through and I can't help myself but think how much my life will change over the coming years. 'Oh boy' I thought as I got comfortable in my seat, preparing to sleep 'Weirdest birthday ever'. As I fell asleep the shuttle just started to accelerate to FTL speeds.


	2. Chapter 2

Hello there, I'm the Royal Protector and you're reading the second chapter of Mirror Images. Due to the extremely positive feedback this story got (20 follows in 4 days) I decided to spend my afternoon writing chapter 2 and publishing it before the day was over. I will answer questions in reviews here from now on.

Darkerego: Because arguably the most important event happens in this year according to the timeline. What is that event you ask? Well, you'll have to read this chapter to find out ;)

"speech"

'thoughts'

*sounds, gunfire, etc.*

(notes, addendums)

(A/N: Authors Note)

Disclaimer: The Mass Effect franchise is **not** mine, only things I own are my OCs.

* * *

 **Chapter 2: An interesting conversation**

My first impression of Arcturus? It was big. Not Citadel big, but I think it definitely reached 20 kilometers in length, but unlike the Citadel it didn't have that cylindrical shape, instead it had a huge central column surrounded by circular constructs that connected at every 90° until it formed a full circle. At one end of the station lied a huge heat shield designed to shadow the other parts from the harmful solar radiation coming from the star. Being the centre of human commerce there were hundreds of ships from all classes and races coming and going from the station. My shuttle docked at one of the rings next to what looked like a turian freight ship. All in all it looked quite impressive to be honest.

After I got off the ship, I immediately noticed the difference between the décor of the two stations. While the Citadel had plants and other niceties Arcturus was a bit more… barren I guess. There were a bit of decorative elements here as well, but not nearly as much.

Anyway, after departure from the Citadel my omni-tool switched to Arcturus time (which happened to be GMT) and after getting off the shuttle I noticed it was pretty much night time. After a bit of thinking I decided to rent a hotel room and go to the Recruitment Center tomorrow. A quick search later I found myself a nice hotel, which was cheap enough for me as it only cost 250 credits per night. I could've gotten a better room, but my funds weren't infinite and I wanted to save up for a couple of things. It was fairly simple: a bedroom with a bed and terminal, and a bathroom of course.

Since I spent almost all of the voyage sleeping (don't ask me how, it's a gift) I didn't feel like sleeping. Instead I've spent all night researching about this universe and its history. Turns out it was almost exactly like the canon ME verse, but with a few minor differences. Humanity was a bit more widespread and influential. Colonies were more densely populated, like Elysium, 'our' flagship colony numbered at about a hundred million as opposed to a few million in canon.

Other than that I learned that, sadly I can't be a biotic, since only fetuses in wombs develop biotics and if you're exposed to eezo any later you'll be lucky to be alive. Altough there was an interesting exception to this: if you were a biotic before exposure, then your biotics could actually get stronger.

After a little crash course about biotics, which wasn't really all that different as depicted in the games, I went onto tech stuff, and oh boy I was like a kid in a candy store. I always liked sci-fi and living it was amazing. I've read about tech powers from the games and omni-tool functions and I was amazed. For example: Overload, your omni-tool overcharges its battery until it's barely able to hold the built up charge, then your fabricator constructs an ionized laser beam and the charge will travel through it until it hits your target.

Awesome stuff.

Much to my disappointment these tech abilities were illegal for civilians and only a few were available for law enforcement forces like C-Sec. Such a shame really, I had a few ideas that were quite nasty. Aside from researching stuff on the extranet I thought about the main games a bit. I wasn't sure if I should meddle with canon and change things. I actually didn't know if I wanted to be on the Normandy in the first place, because if I do manage to join then my chances of survival get a bit shaky from all the dangerous stuff that would happen (looking at you Suicide Mission). And that's assuming I even get onboard or they believe all the lies I'd have to tell them about my past. But what if canon changes on its own and I'd have to patch it up as much as I can? After a few minutes of listing the pros (which if you think about it weren't much of) and cons (Now we're talking) I've made my choice.

I wouldn't actively try to be part of the Normandy crew, but if I have to or it would increase my chances of survival (not likely) I would do it.

This internal debate of the games lead my thoughts to the life I had before… this. I thought about my family, my friends and everyone else I missed already. It was depressing really, knowing that you died before and everyone you knew was probably mourning your death. Knowing that they would eventually move on with their lives until I was just a distant memory for them. I curled into a ball on my bed for hours, my eyes were watering and I started sniffing. I almost started to cry at one point, but I steeled myself, thinking about my father and how he would react to seeing me like this. He would probably look at me and say 'What are you doing moping around? You're bringing shame on your name by acting like a depressed teenage girl'. I laughed at that, my father always was a kind person, unless you angered him, then he would become really stern and scary. I sat up on the bed and wiped off my tears that were dwelling up my eyes. 'He's right, no one would want to see me like this.' I stated. 'There is no way back home, the only way is forwards in this world.'

'Everybody will move on once, either I could be the first one or the last one to do so.'

With a sigh I got up and walked to the mirror in the bathroom, reaching it I looked at my reflection with a piercing gaze. My eyes and nose were still red, but my posture looked confident.

"I won't be the last one, I'm more than that, better, than that. My name is William Carter and I will do everything I can to survive in this world, no matter what." I said with determination.

With that I walked out of the bathroom and turned off my active terminal.

I didn't die in that car crash, I died in that bathroom. I went in as my old self and came out as someone else, something else.

I packed my stuff, which admittedly wasn't much and left the room, locked it with an app on my omni-tool and checked out.

I glanced at my watch (which I calibrated to GMT) and it showed that it was almost noon. Thinking the Recruitment Center would be open by now I made my way towards the nearest maglev station (yes, they had other methods of transportation other than rapid transit, and of course the train was cheaper than the space taxis) and got onto an outgoing train.

* * *

After a five minute ride the train reached my stop, I hopped off of it and was faced with a large, bustling plaza. Directly in front of me, on the other side of the plaza was the large building of the Recruitment Center, on the left side was an Italian restaurant, a quick glance to the neon sign above it told me it was called Giuseppe's Pizza. On the right side were a number of clothing shops and bars. I started to make my way towards the Center, when my stomach gave me its objection in the form of loud growling. This made me realize that I haven't eaten since the shuttle ride (and I only ate nuts there of course) and for a brief moment I wondered how the hell didn't I notice it earlier. My gaze wondered to the Italian restaurant and then to the Center ahead of me.

'It won't go anywhere and I'm starving right now' I thought. 'And it's pizza, you can't go wrong with pizza' I added after a second a thought.

Following my stomachs commands I walked towards the pizzeria, reaching it the doors automatically swooshed open, detecting my presence. Walking in I took notice of the interior, the place had an old (by today's standards) Italian theme, with wooden tables and chairs (a bit refreshing after all this metal everywhere), there were even paintings on the walls, which were made of red bricks and I could see a furnace in the back. It had an aura that pulled you in, made you sit down and just enjoy the little things in life, like a good meal.

It wasn't that busy, probably because everyone was working now and lunch break hadn't started yet. I made my way to an unoccupied table and sat down, I looked at the menu, which was an actual book with a hard cover, again, kudos for this place. Opening it I went through the contents and was happy to see that there were a wide variety of toppings. After about a minute I had decided what to eat and called a waitress over to pick up my order.

After getting my order the waitress left, leaving me alone. I looked around and took notice of the patrons sitting and chatting around me. Most of them were human, but I saw a few asari and turian here and there, there was even a hanar eating what looked like a pizza with squids on top. I watched it eating it for a second, then turned away with a horrified expression on my face. You don't want to know what a hanar eating something looks like. It's just plain disturbing.

Looking around a bit more I noticed a girl around my age sitting in a booth alone. Interested I took her form in. She had raven black-shoulder length hair, small ears and nose, pale white skin and a petite frame.

She could even be considered rather attractive if it wasn't for two things:

The black circles around her eyes, indicating the lack of sleep and an aura around her that just made me depressed.

"Here is your order" said the waitress, putting the tray in front of me.

"Huh-oh thanks" I said surprised, turning my head towards her.

She noticed my reaction and turned to where I was looking, seeing the girl a knowing look appeared on her face as if she could also feel that aura she was projecting, turning back to me she said

"She has been just sitting there since this morning, looking at her food, occasionally poking it and looking just sad." She informed me.

"Do you know who she is?" I asked, looking at the girl.

"Not really, every once in a while she comes here to eat, always alone." She answered.

I kept my gaze on the girl, something inside screamed at me, I didn't understand what it was trying to say at the time, but later on I had realized what it said, but there and then I couldn't decipher it.

"Anyway, I'll leave you to it" The waitress told me, after my nod she walked to another table with other patrons.

After a minute of thinking I stood up, tray in hand and walked over to her and sat down opposite to her. She looked up from her food and looked at me with surprised eyes.

Speaking of eyes

"I think I've found my long lost twin sister" I declared with an amused tone. Her eyes were of the same silvery cybernetic color.

A look of confusion spread on her face, a moment after replaced by a look of realization.

"I didn't have the luxury of choice when I got them. Besides, who are you?" She snapped.

'Somebody is a bit snappy today' I thought.

"Well, neither did I actually, and I'm Will by the way" I introduced myself, hoping to ease the situation.

She gave me a hard look 'Didn't work, damn'.

"Why did you sit here? How do you know I'm not waiting for someone?" She asked in a hard tone.

"To start with your second question, a little bird told me that you always come here solo." I pointed my thumb in the direction of the waitress." As for the first question, it's always better to eat with company, and you really looked like you could use some." I told her with a smile.

She continued to give me that look, albeit a bit weaker.

"I don't need company, especially if it's because of pity" She told me.

"Pity? For what?" I asked, confused, sure she looked like shit, but I wouldn't pity her for that much.

"Yo-you don't know?" she asked cautiously with a bit of surprise thrown in.

"Don't know what?" I inquired, while eating a slice of my pizza.

"The lone survivor, the girl from the dead colony?" She asked with some confusion.

"Doesn't ring any bells" I replied.

She stared at me in disbelief and confusion for a while.

"Are you okay? You look like you saw a ghost." I asked after about five seconds of silence, her stare weirded me out.

"Uh-yeah, you're just the first person to not know who I am, everybody just thinks that I'm just a victim that needs their pity." She informed me tone a lot lighter.

"What exactly happened to you?" I asked, curious about it for some reason.

She looked down at her food again and said "My colony got attacked some two years ago by slavers, everybody was killed or enslaved except me. I was only lucky because I hid in our basement. I'd heard my family get killed one by one by slavers while I tried to make as little noise as possible so they wouldn't notice me as well." She explained in a low voice.

'Damn, that must've been traumatizing' I thought 'Well, time to play psychologist' I had experience with this before, literally every second party I went to I got to be the emotional pillow for the drunk enough people, I've had heard some fucked up shit believe me.

"Tough shit" I stated. She looked up from her tray and into my eyes with a shocked expression.

"It's part of life, my colony got killed some two months ago, that's where I got these" I said indicating my eyes."I've spent the last months in coma and woke up two days ago only to learn that everyone I knew and loved died and I lived. Do you know why?" I asked her in a monotone voice. It might seem dickish, but trust me I have experience with this, the person needs to hear that they're not special, they must be treated like a normal person, in this case the direct approach is the most effective way.

She just shook her head, same look as before.

"Dumb luck" I declared. "I survived because I was in the right place at the right time."

She was silent for a few seconds before speaking up.

"Then how are you so… normal? It's been only two days for you and you look like any other person!" The girl almost cried, disbelief and a glint of curiosity in her eyes.

I sighed, then said "I've come to terms with it, I figured moping around would do me no good and that I can't be trapped in the past, yes, they are gone, but I'm still here kickin' and I need to move on." I stated, almost finishing my pizza.

She had thinking expression on, with her eyes focusing now somewhere else.

"What will you do now?" She asked still looking elsewhere.

"This is my 18th birthday, so I'm going to join the Alliance, I'm hoping to find some meaning for my life." I explained, pointing to the Recruitment Center out in the plaza.

She still didn't look at me, still lost in her little world, looking down I noticed that my pizza was gone.

"Well, thanks for the interesting lunch" I said evenly, getting up, opening my omni-tool and transferring 10 credits to the restaurants account. This got her attention and she looked up at me.

"I guess I'll see you later…. Raven" I said smirking.

From the look she gave me I could tell she didn't like her new nickname.

"Raven? Really? That was the best you could come up with?" She asked in an amused tone.

"Well, you never actually told me your name" I commented.

"Kyra. Kyra Shepard." She said.

* * *

"Kyra. Kyra Shepard" I said, answering his unvoiced question.

He flinched for a second before returning to his normal cocky grin. If you blinked you would have missed it, but I noticed.

"Will. William Carter." He returned the favor. " I guess I'll see you around… Kyra." He said his fair well, but he seemed to flinch when he said my name. With that he walked out the door, probably to the Alliance office at this plaza. I returned her gaze to my food, which I hadn't touched in the last three hours.

'He was just like me' I thought 'Lost everyone he cared about, but he got over it. How?"

'He did in two days what I couldn't in two years, HOW?' She demanded an answer from someone, anyone, but in her mind she was alone. Ever since Mindoir she was alone in her own little world, then he came around and popped her bubble. 'He told me that he needed to move on, bury the past, that he needed a meaning in his life.'

'He said that he turned 18 today, the same as me, July 1st 2154. He wanted to join the military'

With a sigh I leaned on to the table, still thinking.

'I need to move on' I declared 'I can't let my past dictate my future' I continued.

'I need a fresh start' I concluded.

I got up from the seat as fast as lightning and made for the door, leaving a credit chit on the table, all the while swearing in my mind.

'I hope that bastard has room for one more'.

* * *

I Bet you didn't expect that, did ya? Of course, no matter which background you choose Shepard will always enlist at his/her 18th birthday, but we were never told if she decided that on her own or not. And of course it got revealed what pair will be the images in the mirror. ;)


	3. Chapter 3

Hello there, I'm the Royal Protector and you're reading the third chapter of Mirror Images.

When I first finished this chapter and looked back I thought that it was too short on its own and that if I continued a bit longer it wouldn't make sense continuity wise, then it occurred to me that I haven't really honored that M rating yet. With that in mind I decided to give you a sneak peak of a much later chapter, from the survive arc. Now that I said that, I should explain, the pre-ME1 part will consist of three arcs: Adapt, Overcome and Survive. Now we're in the Adapt phase, concerning my integration in this universe. The arcs will get more action packed and a bit darker as the story goes on until we reach the Survive phase, when shit hits the fan. I must warn you though, that snippet contains violent and disturbing (to someone, I had great fun writing it ) content.

Aquos dragon: Thanks man, will do

causey. trey: Thanks, I'm glad you liked it.

z0mbi3sh0t: Don't worry I won't stop doing it anytime soon, there are no brakes on the update train.

TheRangerBoy: Don't worry, we all are.

Toothless is best: Yes, you should, but not anytime soon, that will happen later. Read it again, his omni-tool calibrated itself after departure, he calibrated his watch himself.

Cousland: Two words: Cronos Station. I've seen estimates that put it at 9 kilometers length, and if a human terrorist organization like Cerberus can build a station like that **in secret** , I think humanities **capital** can reach 20 kilometers. But if that doesn't satisfy you I can break it down further. If we assume that Arcturus and the Citadel are cuboids and that Arcturus is half as large as the Citadel, then we can conclude that Arcturus is 1/4 the volume of the Citadel, which means a lot less eezo. Furthermore, the Citadel is in open space, drifting, it needs thrusters to maintain its same position for large amounts of time, which need eezo to lower the stations mass. Arcturus is in a geosynchronous orbit above the star, heat shield facing towards it at all times (no barriers required) which, again, means a lot less eezo. And as my final point: Omega. We know it's almost the same size as the Citadel and it was built by Terminus people. As for this story being AU, it is still the same as canon, I'm just making changes that make it more logical. For example: population. I hated that in the games 99% of humanity is still on Earth after 40 years of eezo travel, and with that remaining 1% we could still pose a threat to the Reapers. And don't worry, I just balanced the population a bit, Earth has 10 billion instead of 11 and the larger galaxy has that remaining 1 billion. Okay, rant over.

TheMysteriousOtaku: You're right, it will be Shepard/OC, but it won't happen instantly.

"speech"

'thoughts'

*sounds, gunfire, etc.*

(notes, addendums)

(A/N: Authors Note)

Disclaimer: The Mass Effect franchise is **not** mine, only things I own are my OCs.

* * *

 **Chapter 3: Enlistment**

'Oh, for crying out loud' I facepalmed as the doors swooshed close behind me 'Not even three days I'm here and I had already managed to fuck it up' I complained.

'I hadn't been expecting to meet Shepard today, or for the next eleven years for that matter.' I thought. Of course I thought maybe I manage to meet some side characters or something in eleven years, but not fucking Shepard.

'I seriously hope I didn't fuck up canon with that little chat' I hoped 'No matter, now that I'm here I can finally enlist' I stated, walking towards the recruitment building. The plaza was still crowded, but the front of the Center was a lot less so. As I was about to enter the sliding doors a voice from behind interrupted me.

"Hey, Will, wait up!" Surprised, I turned behind me to see Shepard jogging up to me.

"Kyra? What's up?" I asked.

Shepard finally caught up and stopped in front of me. "I'm coming with you" She stated matter of factly.

"To where?" I asked, confused.

"To enlist you idiot" She rolled her eyes, this got a surprised look from me.

'This is so not good' I thought 'I think I fucked up canon.'

"Are you sure? You don't really look like the soldier type" It was true, her depressing aura had disappeared and the dark circles around her eyes had faded a bit, but she still looked a bit on the weaker side.

"Of course I'm sure" she huffed "And besides, I'm a biotic, that has to count for something." She stated, flaring her biotics.

'Wow, that's new' I thought as I finally got a look at biotics in real life.

"Are you even 18 yet?" I asked desperately, looking for a way out of this mess. 'This can't be happening' I pleaded to someone.

Calling back the tendrils of dark energy surrounding her body she said "Just turned today, same as you" she smirked.

Looking around, hoping to find a solution to this problem and finding none I let out a defeated sigh and said "Okay, you can come, let's just get this over with."

She grinned victoriously and stepped through the doors, shaking my head I soon followed after.

* * *

As I stepped through the doors I was faced with a large reception room. On the sides were unoccupied couches and some plants, two hallways lead from the end of the room deeper into the building, between them rested a large desk with a person behind it who looked to be deep in work, probably a receptionist.

As Will stepped next to me we started to move towards the desk, reaching it, it was Will who spoke up first.

"Hello, we would like to enlist. Can we do that here? He asked.

The clerk looked up at this and I got a good look at him, he was about in his early twenties, had hazel eyes and hair and looked generally bored, taking a look at us and then a datapad he said

"Yes, the third door to the right in that hallway is free currently, a recruiting officer will handle you from there on" He informed us, pointing to the hallway to our right.

"Thanks" I said, with a nod he turned back to his work, leaving us to our devices, with that we started to look for our door. Finding it locked, I knocked on it and a gruff voice answered "Enter".

The lock opened, we walked in and we were faced with a man his early forties wearing military formal wear sitting behind a desk. Standing up and looking at us he said "Chief Nicholson" he introduced himself with an offered right hand.

"William Carter" "Kyra Shepard" we returned the favor and took turns shaking his hand.

"Please have a seat" he indicated the chairs in front of his desk and sat down himself.

Getting seated ourselves the Chief went straight to the matter at hand "I take it you would like to join the Alliance?" at our nod he activated a terminal on his desk and started typing. After about ten seconds he spoke up again.

"Okay, I will need your credentials" I brought up my omni-tool and transferred the information to him, looking at Will I noticed that he was struggling a bit with the process and as I was about to ask about it he managed to send it as well.

The officer examined our 'papers' and then nodded to himself "Signing up right at 18" he whistled "Alright, what branch would you like to choose?" he asked us.

"Marines" We said in unison. Surprised, we looked at each other with a baffled expression.

Nicholson just smiled and typed away on his computer "May I ask the reason? If it's personal I'll understand" He inquired, still typing.

"My father was a marine, served in the First Contact War, I want to follow in his footsteps." I half-lied, my father really was a marine, but I won't tell him the real reason. He nodded and turned to Will, who just said "I'm just an adrenaline junkie, marines seemed like an interesting choice" smirking.

The recruiter just chuckled and continued to work. After a while he looked up again and said "What made you do this right at your birthdays? Almost no one does that nowadays." He asked with a confused expression.

"I wanted a fresh start" we said at the same time, annoyed, we turned to look at each other and said "Why are you doing that? Stop mimicking me! Oh, just shut up!" We said to each other, again, in perfect unison, we stopped talking and just glared daggers at each other.

"You know, we have rules against fraternization." Stated Nicholson with an amused smile, we looked to him then back at each other with a shocked expression, we locked eyes and I could feel my cheeks reddening, the same as his. Shaking his head, Will turned to him and said "It won't be a problem" with a serious tone.

'Ouch, that probably hurt more than it should have' I thought 'Am I that bad looking or what? No, that can't be it… he isn't that bad looking now that I think about it… No! No! Bad brain, stop that' I scolded myself 'But he's right, it won't be a problem' I thought. I started vigorously shaking my head, turning to the Chief.

"Uh-huh, I'm sure" He said, voice dripping with sarcasm "Anyway, we're almost done, just need your fingerprints here." He stated, handing us a datapad.

Will took it first and pressed his thumb against it, then he passed it to me and I did the same. Nicholson then pressed a button on the terminal, finishing the process. He produced an OSD from a drawer and handed it to us.

"Congratulations, from now on you're part of the Alliance, here are your orders" He declared with a smile.

"Thank you, Sir" I said, taking the OSD and scanning it with my omni-tool. Bringing its contents up I wasn't that surprised.

"We're to report to Melbourne, Australia in three days time for basic training" I declared.

"They might as well have sent us to Tuchanka" Muttered Will, that comment actually got a laugh from the Chief. I raised an inquisitive eyebrow, not understanding the joke here, seeing my confusion it was Nicholson who answered my unvoiced question.

"They say that Tuchanka is the worst place in the galaxy, the more knowledgeable know that it's Australia." He informed me, this only got my curiosity up.

"At least on Tuchanka I see what is about to kill me, in Australia I step into my shoes without checking and I'll be six feet under soon after." Complained Will.

"What?" I asked, terrified.

"Nothing" said Will in a sing-song voice. The Chief just shook his head before speaking "Anyway, you have you orders, you're dismissed" He said with finality.

"Sir" We said in unison before leaving the room. As the door swooshed close behind us I turned to Will

"Okay, what the hell were you talking about?" I asked, still curious.

"Half the animals in Australia are venomous and the other half wants to kill you some other way" He informed me, typing away on his omni-tool.

"What kind of animals?" I inquired, wanting to dig deeper.

"Oh, you know, snakes, kangaroos, sharks, crocodiles, spiders and other shit, anyway, I've found us a shuttle that leaves in about 4 hours, it's on docking bay 34B. See you there Kyra." He informed me, walking down the hallway towards the exit.

"Wait, spiders?" I exclaimed, I was terrified of insects and spiders "Will?" I called out to him as he left my line of sight "Will, get back here, you bastard!" I yelled, running after him.

* * *

And that's that, now comes that little snippet I was talking about earlier, I must warn you that it contains violent stuff, so if you aren't a fan of that you should stop reading now, the story will make sense without it, but then again if you have read it this far, then you're here for this kind of stuff anyway :P

* * *

…

The elevator started to rise again, it was a large industrial variant, like the ones on Omega. There were crates and metal containers littered about, but that wasn't what caught my attention.

It was the twelve asari commandos and the lone krogan battlemaster holding me at gunpoint.

Examining my opponents I noticed that they were very well equipped with armor and weapons, but some of them looked wary of me, occasionally sparing glances at each other.

Honestly I didn't blame them.

My makeshift armor was battered and almost worn out, it was coated in blood, red from my own, blue from asari and turians and yellow from the salarians, krogans, vorcha and batarians I had killed on this rock. I had a Carnifex, a lot of knives and a lone grenade on my armor. The armor wasn't the only thing damaged, my body was hurting all over. I had several cuts and bruises, but the most prominent feature was the long gash on my face. It went from the middle of my left cheek right up until my forehead.

And right though my left eye, leaving me half blind.

My face was covered with blood and dirt from my earlier encounters. All in all, I looked like an unstable psychopath on a murderous rampage.

Actually, now that I think about it I was one.

The krogan was just making threats to get me to stand down so I could get a 'quick and painless death'. 'Yeah, a quick death my ass' I thought, moving the grenade behind my back and pulling the pin.

Three. The krogan was still talking.

Two. Some of the commandos looked like they knew what I was trying to do.

One. I quickly threw the flashbang into their midst and covered my remaining eye.

*BANG*

The flashbang did its job and now the commandos were all disoriented, firing blindly everywhere, but the krogan was just standing in the same place as before, unphased by the explosive. I activated my Tactical Cloak and drew my kukri machete.

I ran right up to the closest asari, dodging a few unaimed, stray shots. As soon as I got up to her I stabbed her right in the jugular, glancing down, I noticed three biotic grenades strapped to her belt, thinking fast I reached down and pulled the pins on all three and kicked her into a group of three still disoriented commandos.

Still cloaked, I bolted to another one not four meters away from my position. As I got there I planted my knife in her chest, armor doing almost nothing to stop the monomolecular blade as it breached her right lung.

*B-B-BANG*

The three grenades went off at the same time, killing all four commandos and shaking the elevator. Sadly my cloak gave out and the remaining commandos collected themselves and started firing and moving up on me. Without a second thought I placed their friend in the way to act as a meat shield. Several shotgun, assault rifle and pistol shots pelted her back when I decided to draw my Carnifex and fire back.

*Crack-Crack Crack-Crack* *Crack*

I managed to shoot two asari in the head twice, first taking out their barriers, second killing them instantly, and with my last bullet I shot my somehow still alive body shield in the temple. The others moved into cover and were preparing to engage again.

'Seven down, six to go' I thought, I took a quick glance around to see that the krogan was leaning against the railing, apparently content to see how things unfold. 'Make that five' I thought, as long as he wasn't attacking I wouldn't, I had enough to deal with in the first place.

The sound of a round hitting my right shoulder shakes me from my thoughts and sends me sprawling to the floor. I quickly rolled behind a metal container to shield myself. 'No daydreaming' I scolded myself and that was it, my armor took the brunt of the bullet and besides I don't really feel pain in my current 'state', I only acknowledge it really.

A break of gunfire makes me glance over my cover only to see a blinding white ball coming right at me.

Time seemed to slow down as I wondered what the hell that ball was. 'Fast moving, blinding white ball of energy.' I thought 'Shit.' Realization hit me like a truck 'Flare.' I cursed. Moving fast as lightning I jumped behind another metal container as time returned to its normal state.

Then the Flare hit.

The large explosion shook the rising elevator and threw the crates everywhere, including mine. I was thrown halfway across the platform only to be stopped by the railing, saving me from falling, and dying. Getting myself up from my less than ideal lying position I was faced with the barrel of a Disciple. My body moved on its own and stuck my knife in the side of the shotgun, rendering it useless. My other hand grabbed hers and pulled her down to the ground, drawing another knife I stabbed her repeatedly in the chest until she stopped moving.

As I got up I saw a tendril of blue coming for me and my body was surrounded by dark energy. The Lash sent me flying halfway across the elevator and I impacted the ground with a heavy thud, but my body didn't stop there, it was still rapidly sliding right towards the edge with no intention of stopping.

…..

* * *

I hope you liked this little addendum to this chapter, later chapters will have this kind of combat, unless you guys don't like it. Anyway, see you next time and take care.


	4. Chapter 4

Hello there, I'm The Royal Protector and you're reading the fourth chapter of Mirror Images. I don't have much to say at this moment, so I guess I'll see you at the end.

"speech"

'thoughts'

*sounds, gunfire, etc.*

(notes, addendums)

(A/N: Authors Note)

Disclaimer: The Mass Effect franchise is **not** mine, only things I own are my OCs.

* * *

Chapter 4: Training

An interesting shuttle ride and three days worth of waiting later we managed to report in time for our basic training.

We got our ranks, Private first class William Carter and Kyra Shepard. It wasn't much, but every great adventure has a small beginning. We got transferred to a training facility in the Outback from there and then we were assigned to a training platoon and were showed to our barracks. We met some of our trainee comrades and swapped some stories, with me sharing stories of my past life, since I didn't really know my new past, finishing that, we went to sleep and got ready for tomorrow.

Then the training started.

On the first day our training officer inspected us and basically told us that 'we were the worst goddamn soldiers he has ever seen' and that 'we weren't even good for cannon fodder' and then ordered us to run around the training complex four times (that's about 12 kms or 19 miles). I handled it well enough I guess, since I was an athlete and was used to marathon length runs from my past life, in addition, my body was even more muscular than before, so I wasn't panting as much as the others. Especially Shepard, she looked ready to collapse on the spot and lie there for the remainder of the day.

For her misery, our officer, one named Sergeant Vasquez, or as he introduced himself to us 'The Lord, oh mighty' demanded push-ups from us until one of us collapsed, and the one who had collapsed first had to run the same distance again. Fortunately it wasn't me or Shepard, so we got a breather between tasks. The remainder of the day was spent in a similar fashion with some breaks in between. As soon as we were let to our bunks 90% of our platoon just collapsed on the spot. The remaining 10%, including me and Shepard had the decency to actually take a shower before that.

As we took on clothes we stumbled to our bunk with Shepard (we actually got assigned to the same one) I climbed to the top one, while Shepard just fell face first into her pillow. Getting comfortable, I decided to start a conversation, since I wasn't that exhausted.

"Still thinking enlisting was a good idea?" I asked with a grin on my face.

"fwuack ywoouhh" She answered, voice muffled by her pillow.

"What? Don't like the daily routine?" I asked in a mocking tone.

I heard shuffling under me and a second later I was promptly blasted off the bed by a well curved, weak Throw. I impacted the floor and gave out a silent cry of pain, 'that hurt' I complained. Shepard turned her head to me and let out a weak yawn "Go to sleep, or I will make you sleep" she told me in a tired, yet serious tone.

"Okay, okay" I said, getting up from the floor and climbing up to my bed."Killjoy" I added quietly, the Sergeant came in at this point and told us that it was lights out and that we had eight hours of sleep, after that he promptly left and turned off all the lights.

* * *

The next four weeks were spent in a similar fashion with us waking up at six in the morning, given an hour to do stuff we wanted to, then at seven we were given breakfast, and it was horrible, let me tell you. It was that despised-by-everyone-in-every-universe military ration pack. Of course I thought it would be bad, but… goddamn, I once ate actual cardboard (don't ask, it was part of a bet) and even that tasted better! Anyway, I wasn't the only one that didn't like the local cuisine, so from the second week on we took turns gathering food outside the compound (we were allowed outside as long as we had breaks). It was my turn once, I was given a bag and was sent on my merry way, after about half an hour of searching in the wild I'd found a cassowary nest. There were about half a dozen bowl sized eggs there, with no sign of the parents, seeing the perfect opportunity I quickly put them in my bag and turned tail. That was when they had found me. Let me tell you, a cassowary is fucking scary if it's pissed off, and since I've played Far Cry 3 I knew that these fuckers were deadly. As soon as I saw them and they saw me I started sprinting, I think I never ran faster than at that moment. I must've looked ridiculous as well, with me sprinting for my life with a bag in my hands and huge birds chasing me. At least I had a good omlette that day.

Back on track, at eight we had to report for duty, from there on we would spend all day doing exercises and obstacle courses with the occasional break bringing us salvation. We would finish with everything by eight in the afternoon and we had lights out at ten, between that we had our free time.

When we completed the first month, we were introduced to the advanced classes, like close quarters combat and shooting.

And that brings us to the present, at the start of our god knows which close quarters combat lesson, or CQC.

The Sergeant brought us into a building full with boxing bags, mattresses and even rubber rings. He turned to us and said that we would take turns in the rings with each other, while he would observe us and make notes, probably for further class specialization. He chose the first pair and they climbed into the ring, with a ding they started to spar. The others dispersed, found a seat or a chair and sat down, talking to each other. Doing so myself, I sat down on a boxing bag, looking bored.

"What's up?" That was Shepard, we've sort of become best friends during that one month we were here and people would always see us together, pulling a boxing bag along and placing it next to mine she sat down.

"Not much, just bored" I replied, turning to her.

"Not even watching the matches?" she asked.

"Why? If you've seen one, you've seen all of them, all of them use some kind of martial arts" I said, looking bored.

"And how's that boring exactly?" she inquired with a confused look.

"See Rodriguez? She uses Capuera, that means that she uses her legs the most" I stated, pointing to the ring, sure enough, Rodriguez was currently in the middle of a roundhouse kick."It's not just Capuera, every martial art has a preference, for example Judo likes to grab things and use the torso. Knowing these preferences gives you an advantage over them."

She seemed to be thinking for a bit then asked "So what martial art do you use?"

"Krav Maga mostly, with a few additions from other ones and of my own" I answered. It was true, I used to do Krav Maga back in the day, I've just made a few modifications to it, so it would be effective against aliens as well. "Quick, powerful strikes to vulnerable points to finish the fight as soon as possible" I explained.

Shepard was about to ask something when the Sarge exclaimed "Carter, Sheffield, into the ring! Now!"

"Well, it's my time to shine, watch closely and you might learn something" I told her as I got up from my seat, Shepard wasn't the best at CQC to say the least, although she made up for it in her biotic and leadership skills.

She just rolled her eyes and muttered "Fuck you".

Walking towards the ring I looked at Sheffield, he was about the same height as me with a slim, yet muscular figure. He had blue eyes and blond hair, with an ever present sarcastic tone in his voice. Honestly, I considered him a friend, we would always prank other trainees, and would get into trouble together, of course.

The ring was a normal boxing ring with ropes and a rubber floor. I ducked under the ropes and stood at the center, Sheffield doing the same. I had to be cautious with this one, Sheffield knew several martial arts and was probably the only match for me in the platoon. It would be tricky to devise a strategy against him. We've never actually fought, but always joked how we would kick each other's asses if we could. The Sarge probably knew that we were the best and wanted to see who would win. A small crowd has even gathered by the time we turned to face each other, everyone was curios who would win.

"Okay, basic rules, no permanent injuries allowed, you have one minute to defeat the other and if you want to surrender, you tap out, if one of you is unable to continue the fight, then the match is over. Am I clear?" The Sarge listed off. We both nodded, still looking at each other, my silver eyes boring into his icy blue and vice versa. We took up fighting stances and readied ourselves.

I glanced at the side to see Shepard in the crowd and gave her a look that meant 'watch and learn' and turned back to my opponent.

*DING*

The bell went off and we started to slowly circle each other like hungry sharks, waiting for an opening, the hall was deathly quiet and only the ticking of the clock could be heard.

Ten seconds.

We attacked at the same time, with the both of us sending a fist to the other's face. The crowd started cheering, we blocked and counter attacked each other, I leaned to the side, avoiding a punch aimed at my jaw, he wasn't as lucky and I got him in the face. He stepped back and I was about to attack again when he did a roundhouse kick that got me straight in the jaw. The others started whooping as I collapsed onto the floor, with only my arms holding me up. I could taste the salty blood in my mouth.

With an inquisitive eyebrow I looked at Sheffield, who was just grinning ear to ear. I looked back to the ground and let out a laugh. 'If he wants to do it the fun way who am I to ruin the moment?' I thought as I spat out the blood from my mouth and got back into combat stance.

Twenty seconds.

I threw my fist in a well curved trajectory aimed at his face, he blocked it with his arm and locked our two limbs together. He brought forward his other arm to counter attack but I was faster 'Oh, no you don't' I thought as I leaned back and headbutted him full force. He crumpled to the floor, stunned, I wasn't doing much better either, my head was ringing and I could see stars. With great difficulty he stood on his two feet and faced me.

Thirty seconds.

He took on the offensive and stormed me with kicks and punches I was barely able to dodge or block. Suddenly in the middle of one his punches he released his body just enough to not hit me with his fist.

But with his leg, sweeping my legs out from under me.

I fell to the floor, back first and was instantly faced with Sheffield's rapidly approaching sole. Seeing no way out of this I turned inwards, maybe my subconscious had an answer. This time it showed me what to do exactly. I smirked and grabbed his foot with both hands, stopping his attack in its tracks, and twisted it sideways. He let out a cry of pain and I pushed him away.

Forty seconds.

I got up and attacked him, taking advantage of his momentary pain. I kicked him in the thigh, then in the side and followed up with a punch to his nose. It broke and started to bleed, he collected himself and launched a vicious counter attack. He grabbed my arm, twisted it up and backwards, causing me a great amount of pain. Then with his other hand he started to rapidly punch my ribs and chest, knocking the air out of me. I was almost done and I knew it. 'How am I supposed to survive here if I can't even defeat a trainee?' I asked myself.

Releasing me he started to rapidly punch my face, making it bloodied and bruised, I was about to collapse and turn unconscious at this point.

'I can't even survive'

 **'Survive'**

' **SURVIVE'**

Fifty seconds.

Everything slowed down. My senses changed. My sight became something else… the colors were more vibrant than ever, everything had a sharp edge, like I could see behind them, everything seemed to vibrate at an impossibly fast pace like I could see the individual signals my eyes sent to my brain. I could hear the cheering and whooping of the crowd, the panting of Sheffield, even my heartbeat. I could smell the blood and sweat of the both of us.

Sheffield's left fist was coming right at my face, when my body moved literally on its own, like I wasn't in control at all. I sidestepped to the right and grabbed his punching wrist, then pulled it forwards, this made him lose balance and his body followed his arm.

Right into my speeding right elbow.

My elbow and his nose slammed into each other like tidal waves. This shattered his already broken nose and made him stumble back. 'I' brought back my left hand, and then in one swift motion launched it at his throat with the speed of a leaping cobra. 'I' grabbed his throat at the base of his head, lifted him off the ground and slammed him head first into the ground. Now this would ,let's say on concrete, result in death, or if the victim is 'lucky' enough, he 'only' gets a fractured skull. Luckily for Sheffield he landed on rubber and only lost his consciousness.

I stood in place, breathing heavily and bloodied everywhere, I was still in that trance, around me only silence remained, everybody was deathly quiet, no one daring to speak.

*DING*

The sound of the bell finally awoke me from my 'battlesleep' and I looked around me with surprised eyes.

'What the fuck happened' I thought frantically 'What the hell just took over' I questioned.

The crowd finally started to cheer again and the Sarge spoke up "Good job, Carter. Go to the medbay and get those wounds looked at, bring Sheffield as well, Shepard! Help Carter carry him!" He ordered.

"Yes, sir!" She complied, jumping in the ring, taking one of Sheffield's shoulders, with me taking the other one.

When we got out of the building Shepard spoke up "Mind telling me what that was all about?" she asked.

"What are you talking about?" I asked confusedly.

"In those last seconds, before you KO-ed him, your eyes changed" She explained, motioning to Sheffield "They looked like a predator's looking at its prey." She continued.

'What? What the hell is happening?' I thought.

"I don't know what happened in those last moments, to be honest. It just happened" I explained truthfully.

"Things don't happen on their own, something snapped in you, I could feel it when I looked at you. Not just your eyes, your movements and whole posture looked off" She said.

"Whatever it was, I hope it doesn't happen again." I answered solemnly.

* * *

*THOMK*

'70' I thought as I inspected the scoreboard 'A bit to the left' I corrected my aim and fired.

*THOMK*

'75' I declared victoriously.

I was in the shooting range of the compound with the rest of the platoon, we were in the middle of a target practice at the moment. It was a week after the 'incident' and repetition hasn't happened since, for which I'm glad as hell, I like to keep control of my body.

*THOMK*

'78' I stated, satisfied. We were currently practicing with sniper rifles on a range of 50 meters (150 ft). I was hefting a Viper at the moment, I was given the opportunity of choosing between a Viper and a Mantis, evidently, I chose the Viper. The reason being simple: I despised the Mantis in the games, not enough punch, too small magazine. I hate the Viper as well, but it was the better of two evils. I only ever liked two rifles in the games: the Javelin and the Black Widow, oh what I wouldn't give for one of those beauties right now…

*THOMK* *CLINK*

I fired again and changed thermal clips. Oh yeah, those. Turns out that heat diffusion systems were never invented in the first place here. If you think about it even made sense. The clips even had a second function: power. The thermal clip contained the energy necessary to fire the gun and then the gun vented the produced heat back into the clip. In hindsight, it certainly sounds like a great idea to not walk around with a gun with an in-built nuclear reactor to power the thing.

"Alright, you idiots, listen up!" Called out Sarge. "Everybody into their squads, now!" He exclaimed. Everybody did so and I soon met up with my sorry excuse of a squad. There was me, Shepard, Sheffield (who got better after that incident and insisted that I must teach him that combo), a chineese girl named Zhang, a german guy named Adrian and Rodriguez from the CQC lesson.

After everybody gathered into their respective groups Sarge spoke up again "Alright, you maggots, I'm feeling very generous today, so I am giving you a challenge." He said.

"Every group will choose a sharpshooter, who then will try to do the challenge." He continued.

"The challenge is that you must score a perfect 100 on the scoreboard at 100 meters, you will get three chances to do so. The reward is that the winner and his or her team gets the rest of the day off." He declared.

A wave of murmurs went through our platoon at the impossibility of the challenge, we turned to face each other and it was Adrian who spoke first.

"Well, who should we choose?" he asked.

"Why even bother? It's impossible, he's just doing that to make fun of us" said Rodriguez.

"It's worth the time, if we get lucky we may score a lucky shot" stated Zhang.

"So who's the best shot here?" I asked.

Everybody looked at me with expectant eyes. 'Oh shit'.

"What? Me? That can't be, surely one of you must be better than me." I said, not believing my bad luck.

"You have the highest score of all of us. I think you should be our choice" 'Yeah, fuck you too, Shepard' I narrowed my eyes, but to my misery the others started nodding.

"Agh, fine, I'll do it." I said in a resigned tone. With a sigh I grabbed my rifle and stood in line for shooting.

*THOMK THOMK THOMK*

Three shots rung out, not one scoring 100. The unlucky shooter let out a frustrated sigh and got back to his group. The next one got in place and prepared to fire.

"This is ridiculous" I thought "No one can score a perfect 100 at this range" I grumbled.

*THOMK THOMK THOMK*

Again, not one hit. Everyone was starting to get frustrated at this point, with me not being the exception, oh and it was my turn, how lovely.

I walked up to the firing line and looked at the targets. They were a human form on a paper back, with two circles indicating the targeted areas. There was one on center mass and one right between the eyes, both worth 100. A computer with a camera would analyze the impact site and give you a score. There were three such targets behind a thin metal barrier, which then would pop-up one-by-one.

I looked at my rifle, than at my squad, then back at the range. I was sure I couldn't make the shot, but I would try for them anyway. I took up the normal right handed firing stance and braced myself.

'Maybe if I imagine some other target there' I mused.

"Come on Carter, take the shot!" That was Sarge, he stood with the rest of the platoon, waiting for me.

I took in a deep breath and readied myself, I looked through the scope and saw the targets.

For a second I imagined husks in their places and then everything changed again. The rifle became a part of my body… an extension of me… My mind calculated trajectories and movements in a second and pulled the trigger.

*THO-THO-THOMK-CLINK*

I fired three times, then popped the heat sink, turned away and put down my Viper. I turned to face the others.

They were all silent, faces pale, mouths open and eyes wide, even Sarge had a surprised look on his face.

"What?" I asked, uncomfortable with this many gazes.

"H-How did you do that?" asked one of my platoon mates.

"Did what?" I asked confusedly. She just pointed to the score board. I turned my gaze towards it and froze.

100 100 100

A video was playing under it, showing the impacts. The first one was a pure headshot, then the second target was halfway through deploying, when I shot it in the head, then the third…

It didn't even start to deploy, when the round punched right though the metal cover and right into its head…

'What the fuck' was the only response I could come up with.

"Well, I do believe I won, so… who's up for Skyllian Five?" I declared smugly, trying to hide my shaky voice.

All I got was silence and continued staring until Shepard came to my rescue.

"Well, I am. I think one of the cooks in the mess hall has a deck" She stated. The rest of the squad just ran up to me and bombarded me with questions about how the hell I did that and the like, but my mind was on one question.

"What the fuck is happening to me?" I whispered.

* * *

Tsk, Tsk, Tsk, Will, Will, Will. You should have known that if you mess with your subconscious, that there would be consequences :) . Anyway, the inspiration to this came to me after reading a lot of Sis where the OC is almost never good at combat. I thought about it and said why not make him good at it, but with drawbacks. Anyway, see you next time and take care.


	5. Chapter 5

Hello there, I'm The Royal Protector and you're reading the fifth chapter of Mirror Images. This chapter will be a bit slow paced, as it about world building and character interaction. If you want action, you'll have to wait for the next chapter :).

VODKA18: Thanks.

general-joseph-dickson: Thanks, your support is appreciated.

Aquos dragon: I'm happy that you think the same way, this story will be a bit different from your everyday SI ;).

Toothless is best: Not this time, although the next two chapters will be action oriented, especially the second.

zealous specter: No, I have different plans for Will, but don't worry, you'll get you dose of biotic awesomeness from a certain Mindoirese commander.

"speech"

'thoughts'

*sounds, gunfire, etc.*

(notes, addendums)

(A/N: Authors Note)

Disclaimer: The Mass Effect franchise is **not** mine, only things I own are my OCs.

* * *

 **Chapter 5: Raptors**

We were in a warehouse somewhere in the compound, sitting around our makeshift poker table, which consisted of weapon, food and other supply crates. After that shooting challenge Shepard went and got that deck, while me and the others found a place for us. The place was dark for the most part except the occasional lamp giving it some light, everything was covered in dust, indicating that we were the first ones here in a long time. At one side of our rectangle shaped table sat me and Shepard, opposite to us was Adrian and Zhang, on one end sat Rodriguez, the seat across from her laid suspiciously empty. From time to time one of us would glance at it and let out a sigh of frustration.

"Where is Sheffield?" asked Adrian, clearly frustrated.

"He said that he would bring some 'items' that would make the game better" stated Shepard, her voice sounded calm, but I could see signs in her posture indicating the opposite.

"Well, I hope he gets here soon, otherwise we start without him" I said, we had been waiting for him for the past half hour and our patience was running low.

Everybody nodded their agreement and we sat in silence for the next five minutes. Everybody spent this time differently, I shuffled the deck, Shepard was biotically levitating a few chips, Rodriguez and Zhang were fiddling with their omni-tools and Adrian was just drumming his fingers on the crate, occasionally checking the time on his omni-tool. When the five minutes passed and we were about to start we heard the warehouse door open. We turned to see a very satisfied looking Sheffield come in, hands behind his back.

"About time" groaned Rodriguez, this got a grunt of agreement from everybody.

"Now, I'm sure that you aren't in the best of moods right now, but I do believe I have the thing that will change your minds" Sheffield grinned, hands still behind his back.

"Well, by all means, enlighten us" quipped Shepard, still playing with her chips.

"Ta-da" said Sheffield as he produced a six pack and a pack of cigarettes from behind his back. Everybody looked at him in shock and awe.

"I take everything back, you're good" commented Shepard, her eyes on the beers.

"That's what I thought" smirked Sheffield as he sat down in his place and passed everyone a beer.

Everybody grabbed their beer and opened them, taking a long sip. When everyone was done I spoke up.

"How did you get this stuff anyway?" I asked, it was against regulations to have alcohol on the base much less actually drinking some. He opened the pack and took out a cigarette, then passed it around the table, everybody took one except me and Shepard. I didn't really smoke in my past life and I didn't want to start now either.

"I'm friends with the requisitions officer, he owed me a favor and I collected" He said as he lighted his cigarette with a lighter.

"If Sarge finds out, we'll be cleaning the showers for the next four weeks" stated Zhang as she took a long draw from hers, speaking up for the first time.

"Damn, Zhang, always the optimist" smirked Rodriguez "Besides, he's still out there with the others, and he doesn't know we're here in the first place" she continued.

"Sorry if I'm considering all the options available and not just rush in with no plan" She bit back, taking a sip from her bottle.

"Worked for me and Sheffield, actually, you should try it" I smirked as I dealt the cards to everyone. At first I thought Skyllian Five was a completely new card game, so when I had suggested it I asked Shepard about the rules, turns out that it was just normal poker, they've just changed the name for the aliens' benefit.

"Yeah, like last time with that 'put someone's hand in water while sleeping and watch what happens' prank" said Adrian, looking at his cards.

"I didn't think Sarge could become so angry at something" continued Shepard as she examined her cards.

"Totally worth it" Sheffield and I said at the same time. True, I had to do rounds around the complex for hours with Sheffield, but still, it was worth the look on the poor victim's face. I glanced down at my hand. 'A pair of fives, right at the start, not bad' I thought. I glanced back up to see everyone either checking or calling, doing the same I put down the Flop, it turned out to be an eight, a two and a king.

"Anyway, now that the training will soon finish, any ideas what class will you be assigned to?" inquired Rodriguez, everybody looked up at this and had a thinking expression on.

"Adept or Vanguard, probably" replied Shepard, she was probably right, her biotic abilities and control were far the best in the platoon.

"Soldier, most likely" said Adrian, he did fit the criteria well, his strength and stamina was pretty high.

"Sentinel, medic" stated Zhang matter of factly, she was a weak biotic, but she made up for it in the medical field.

"CCS is my best bet" said Sheffield, eyes locked on his hand. He would probably make the cut as well, close combat specialists were soldiers that focused on tight environments and hand-to-hand combat most of the time, perfect commando material.

"Engineer" said Rodriguez proudly, she was a tech genius to say the least, rumor said that she put her name in the Australian database, so she could be sent here, though no one knows why. "Oh, and I raise" she added, pushing a bit of chips to the middle.

'Why not, I'll wait for the next card and if it isn't good I'll just fold' I thought "I call" I said, pushing the same amount forwards.

"And what about you, Carter?" asked Sheffield "Fold" he added.

"You would make a great Infiltrator" added Adrian "Call"

"Or CCS" said Zhang "Call"

I thought about it for a minute, while Shepard and Rodriguez both called. "If I'm given the choice, I would be an Infiltrator" I declared, putting down the next card, another five, I smiled inwards.

"With those shooting skills you've got you'll do just fine" affirmed Shepard. " I raise" I said, taking a swig from my bottle.

"Call" said Adrian, as he too, showered his throat with the golden nectar.

"Fold" said Zhang irately, leaning back and letting out a huff.

"Call" Call" the ladies next to me said, with that I placed the final card down, an ace of spades.

"Check" was the response from everyone until it was Shepard's turn "Raise" she declared with smug tone.

'Hmm, maybe it will be an interesting night' I thought.

"All in" I said, voice calm and decisive, the look on Shepard's face was already worth it as she leaned back in her seat and looked quite uncomfortable.

"Scheiße" "Go to hell" "I'm out" came the various responses from the remaining players.

'Indeed, I believe so' I confirmed, and with a victorious grin I collected my chips.

* * *

"Oh, come on!" complained Sheffield "You had to have a fricking four there?" he continued.

I just smirked and collected his chips, effectively busting him out of the game. We were playing for a couple of hours at this point and I was sure that it was dark outside. He was the first to lose everything, but Zhang and Adrian were low as well, Rodriguez and Will had a considerable amount left, but I had the most at this point of the game.

"Should've just folded when you could" said Will, shuffling the deck, he was smart, as soon as I raised the first time he folded.

"Yeah, now that you are out, could you get us another beer?" inquired Zhang.

Sheffield just rolled his eyes and said "I have another pack stashed somewhere, I'll be back" with that he got up and left.

Will dealt the cards to everyone and I drunk all my remaining beer. "Check, you guys heard about the graduation course?" Adrian asked.

"A bit, it's supposed to be hard as hell" I said, while Zhang and Rodriguez checked.

"As long as they put us together we'll do just fine" countered Rodriguez "Hell, we'll probably be top of the class" she added. She wasn't wrong, we were quite the team to be honest, with me as squad leader, Will being my second, Sheffield and Adrian being our front and Zhang and Rodriguez as support, we were unstoppable. We managed to break time records on team oriented tasks like it was nothing. It seemed that we had developed an impressive dynamic.

"It won't be like our previous tests, our targets will be shooting back this time" countered Will.

"What?" this got everybody's attention and turned to him.

"We'll be facing holograms like in those combat arenas, just on a much larger scale, they'll even equip us with receptors that would shock us if we get hit" he explained. This got a groan from everybody, no one liked electroshock therapy.

"Perfect, just what we needed" I said "Check"

"How do you know that anyway?" asked Zhang while puffing with her cigarette. Will just put down the Flop and answered "Heard Sarge talking with the base commander" he stated. "He inquired if the base got the necessary equipment for the test. I heard words like hologram projector and extra generators and such. I just put two and two together." He continued.

I looked down at my hand and smiled. 'An ace and a king, this might just lead somewhere' I thought happily.

"At least we've got Raven in command" smirked Adrian, this got me to let out a sigh of frustration and bury my face in my hands while the others started laughing. After arriving here, Will told everyone my supposed nickname and people started to call me Raven more often than Shepard or Kyra, which I'm not fond of to say the least. I prefer if people call me by my name. "Let's make this interesting " he added, pushing a hefty amount of chips inwards.

"Would you guys stop that? I hate that name. Please?" I pleaded, I really did.

"We know, that's why we do it" laughed Rodriguez, while Zhang called.

"Besides, it fits" Adrian commented, playing with his chips.

"Wow, my hair is black like a raven's, how original" I complained, Rodriguez and I both called.

"Say whatever you want, that name will stick" said Will while smirking like an idiot."Fold" he said.

"Oh, if we're talking about nicknames, what should we give you, oh Mr. Hotshot? I said, trying to shift the topic.

He dealt the next card, which turned out to be a queen of hearts, he spoke "Don't know, you guys are supposed to give me a name, otherwise it would be just weird" he stated.

"Well, you're an amazing shot as that competition proved, so we should give you a name that indicates it" said Zhang, hands on her chin.

"What about Deadshot?" commented Rodriguez, everybody turned their heads at this comment and looked at her.

"I'm not even mad, that's a great nickname, although I'll still need to live up to it" admitted Will, this just got me and the others confused, our raised eyebrows earned us an explanation from Will.

"Deadshot is an old comic character back from the last century, his 'thing' was that he never, ever missed in his entire life" he enlightened us, to this everybody let out an 'ooh' sound and got back to playing. "Although, I had no idea that you knew about old school comic stuff" He added with an inquisitive look.

"I was a nerd before the military and I'd read almost every comic out there" shrugged Rodriguez.

"Was?" Adrian asked, voice dripping with sarcasm. She was on her omni-tool half of her free time.

"Okay, still am" she admitted reluctantly. At this point I glanced at the table and realized that the game had moved on quite considerably and my body was just on auto pilot the whole time. Will dealt the River and leaned back in his chair. Looking at the table I noticed that there was a ten and a jack. I looked at my hand and then back at the table, my eyes widened as I realized that I had a royal flush. With barely contained excitement I looked at the others, just as Adrian was raising by quite a large amount.

Zhang folded and Rodriguez called, it was my time to shine "All in" I declared, Adrian and Rodriguez seemed confident and called.

Now it was time to see them cry, I flipped my cards "You've got to be kidding me" "Goddamn" said my respective foes. Grinning like an idiot I collected their money. This was the moment when Sheffield came back with six delicious looking bottles. He sat down and passed us our beer.

"What did I miss?" he inquired.

"Not much, got a new nickname and Shepard busted out these two" answered Will, pointing at my unlucky victims.

"Good, 'cause we should cut this short, the others are done and I don't want Sarge finding us here" he stated. Will looked at us with a thinking expression on, a few seconds later he spoke up

"Last round, everyone plays, winner takes all?" he asked us.

"Why not?" I said, sure, I could lose everything, but we didn't play for the credits anyway.

Everybody nodded, every chip went into the middle and the round started.

"What day will be tomorrow?" asked Adrian, while Will got done with dealing.

"Tuesday, why?" answered Sheffield.

"Shit, I'll have to gather food in the morning" he groaned, everyone either called or checked.

"I heard rumors, that a few guards saw a few deer to the east" advised Rodriguez, this got Will's attention and he looked up fast as lighting.

"I'll do it for you" he stated with an unnerving smile. Adrian looked relieved at this and a bit confused.

"Thanks, man, but why?" he asked with a raised eyebrow.

"Let's just say I have a history with deer" he answered, eyes losing focus for a second "May I use your kukri?" he inquired with a wolfish grin that made shivers run down my spine, looking at Zhang.

"I don't know if I want to know what that means" Adrian shook his head while Zhang just shrugged "If it means that we'll eat real food, then by all means" she said, producing a large knife from her boot, flipping it in her hand and handing it to a grateful Will.

Will put down every card, since it was unnecessary to wait between turns. Everybody flipped their cards and got a look at the whole table.

"3000 credits richer" said a very satisfied Zhang, the buy in was 500 for each of us, making it quite an expensive game to be honest. Everybody cursed under their breaths and took a draw/sip from their beer/cigarette.

"Meh, still got about 480 000 creds" stated Will while fiddling with his omni-tool. This comment made several of us go into a choking and coughing fit, including me.

"You have how much?" I asked after a few seconds of uncontrolled coughing.

"Alliance paid me compensation for the colony incident" he explained, seemingly clueless just how much money he's talking about.

"Damn, all I got was the implants and a foster family that I hated" I muttered 'lucky bastard… or not… he still lost his entire family… okay I take that back' I thought.

He just shrugged "I don't even know how to spend that much money" he admitted.

"Well, if you need help spending it, we're here to help" smirked Sheffield, Will just rolled his eyes.

"Anyway, I propose a toast" he declared, standing up, beer in hand.

"To what?" asked Rodriguez. Will seemed lost in thought for a moment then asked "What are we even called? I mean our squad" He asked, no one answered, since no one named us yet, we descended into a few moments of silence.

"Raptor" came the simple reply from Adrian.

"Huh?"

"Raptor squad, we work together like a group of predators, and which is the coolest one?" He led us through his reasoning.

"Not bad, Raptor it is" Will declared, everyone stood up and raised their bottles

"To Raptor squad, to us" we said, clinking our bottles and finishing our drinks in one gulp.

* * *

On a ship somewhere in the Traverse a man sat in his command chair, reading various datapads and holoscreens, he was alone in his large, empty room. He was in his late thirties and his deep sea blue eyes spoke of years of experience and ruthlessness. The silence was broken when one screen popped up and displayed a vidcall request.

The man lazily moved his arm to the intruding screen and accepted the call. A batarian with creamy brown skin and black eyes appeared.

"Report" The man simply said, eyes boring into his subordinate's.

"If we keep up the building and refitting schedule, then we will be done in the next couple of months" came the muffled response from the batarian.

"Any problems thus far?" The man inquired.

"The previous owners put up a bit of resistance, but nothing we couldn't handle" reported the batarian.

"Excellent, we need that place up and running as soon as possible" said the satisfied man. "Get more slaves if you think it will speed up the process" he said, voice calm.

The batarian nodded and closed the transmission, the man turned his gaze towards the large window of the room, looking out into the abyss.

"Project Purity shall begin testing shortly" the man smiled.

* * *

*gasp*… Was that… plot at the end? You guessed it. The story will actually have a non-canon plot element in it. Well, at least I hope it didn't happen in the games for more reasons than I care to admit right now. Anyway, see you next time and take care.


	6. Chapter 6

Hello there, I'm The Royal Protector and you're reading the sixth chapter of Mirror Images.

Oh man, where should I start? I guess I'll apologize for not updating in time, but this chapter was quite the mouthful (10 000 words!). Originally I had a completely different idea of this chapter and was halfway through writing it when I booted up one of my ME3 insanity walkthroughs, playing it an idea came to me and I scrapped the entire chapter, the end result? This monstrosity of a chapter. Anyway, I'll see you at the end.

dekuton: Thank you for noticing the mistakes I hadn't. I can't really say I'm a military brat, so if there will be mistakes down the road concerning this, I do apologize. Ooh that won't be the only unique thing in this story, trust me ;).

general-joseph-dickson: Thanks.

Toothless is best: I hereby confirm that there will be plot in the story :)

ItsEvansFault: That actually made me laugh, but no, Project Purity has a bit more sinister goal to it, and it's not Cerberus doing it if that's what you were thinking about.

"speech"

'thoughts'

*sounds, gunfire, etc.*

(notes, addendums)

(A/N: Authors Note)

Disclaimer: The Mass Effect franchise is **not** mine, only things I own are my OCs.

* * *

 **Chapter 6: Trial by fire**

It's been four weeks since our little poker game and now we faced our biggest challenge yet, the graduation test. It was our last day of training when Sarge informed us about it, this got everyone riled up, since this was the big day, one final obstacle we had to overcome. Of course, our squad knew about it and trained hard, everybody got better at what they did, Rodriguez and Zhang calibrated their omni-tools for combat, Shepard learned some new biotic tricks, Sheffield and Adrian got more proficient with weapons and I became a lot better shot. Also, remember when I talked about some nasty ideas for omni-tool weapons? Now that it was finally legal for me to add combat grade apps, I, with Rodriguez's help, made a unique app for my 'tool, it was a one shot kind of thing, but if it worked it would probably save my ass. On the big day our platoon was loaded onto shuttles and flown halfway across country to a military training zone.

As we touched down on a shuttle landing zone and got out a new officer greeted us. We shifted into a grid formation and the whole platoon snapped off a salute like it was second nature to us. "At ease" said the officer, momentarily doing the same. We stood at ease and awaited our orders.

"My name is Commander Martinez and I would like to welcome you to my base" He said, all the while seizing us up.

"You're here to complete your journey and take your places as protectors of humanity" He continued, pacing up and down.

"We have been preparing a site just for this purpose, we have introduced new challenges and technology for this class" He declared. "This test will be the first of its kind, if successful we will apply the same method to regular basic training everywhere. Make no mistake, it's harder than ever before" He concluded. "Don't disappoint" He ordered.

"Yes, sir!" We hollered as one.

"Good, you are to head to the barracks until further notice, everyone is dismissed except-" he activated his omni-tool and started listing names "Privates Carter, Shepard, Rodriguez, Zhang, Fischer and Sheffield" he said. The rest of the platoon dispersed and we remained in our same position.

"Come with me, I would like to speak with you" With that he started walking and we followed.

"I heard great things about your team , 'Raptor squad'" He stated with finger quotes while leading us somewhere.

"Sir?" asked Shepard with a raised eyebrow. 'That was weird, how did he know about us?'

"The Commander of your base is a friend of mine, he praised the whole bunch of you, after reading your files I can't say I disagree" He explained.

"Thank you, sir" said Zhang, we arrived at a building, glancing at the text above the door it read 'armory'. Martinez opened the door with a swipe of his omni-tool and led us inside.

"Don't thank me yet, there is a reason you're here" he countered, leading us deeper into the armory.

"Which is?" inquired Sheffield while we passed several doors and corridors.

"You will be our guinea pigs, you'll be the first ones down there with the heaviest resistance. There will be people from brass watching this test, they will decide if the new additions are worth it or not. Your task is to give them a show" He told us, he stopped in front of a door.

"We'll get to be lab rats, I'm so excited" muttered Rodriguez.

"Warning, at least level 3 clearance is required to enter this room" a VI informed us from a nearby loudspeaker. Martinez brought up his omni-tool and transferred his military ID.

"Scanning, access granted. Good day, Commander Martinez" said the VI, unlocking the door for us, we stepped through and our jaws dropped to the floor.

"Of course, you'll be equipped with top of the line equipment to give that show" smiled Martinez. The room was spacious, with clear white walls and a polished grey floor and multiple workbenches, but that wasn't the thing that caught our attention.

It was the rows of weapons on the walls and armor pieces on display.

"You'll be given 30 minutes to prepare, after that a shuttle will take you to your LZ and drop you off" he informed us, turning to leave, we said a distracted "Sir" and continued staring at the scene ahead of us.

Our trance was broken when I walked up to a particular weapon and carefully took it off the wall.

"It's beautiful" I said, awed as I inspected the Black Widow in my hands, it was heavy but I knew that it more than made up for it in other areas, the others finally awakened as well and started to collect their weapons.

"No, this thing is beautiful" stated Shepard as she caressed an N7 Piranha like it was made of pure gold.

"You're both wrong, this thing is the shit" commented Adrian as he showed us an M-76 Revenant.

"Speak for yourselves" spoke Rodriguez as she hefted an M-37 Falcon, of course she went for the grenade launcher.

"If you guys are done playing children in a candy store could you listen up" said Zhang, clicking her fingers. This got us from our trance and we looked at her.

"Haven't you heard him? We'll have the heaviest resistance, everybody will watch our little op, even brass! We have to bring our best to the table" She said in a worried, yet authoritive tone.

"You're right" conceded Sheffield "We play to our strengths, everybody grabs what their role would indicate then we meet at the door" he said, pointing to the entrance. We nodded and silently started to look for the best gear.

I turned to the weapon in my hands 'It's the best sniper rifle that I know of, should kill almost anything in one shot, has three rounds per clip, could use some modifications though' I listed. I glanced around and found a workbench 'Nice, although I still need another weapon' I moved to the bench, put down the rifle and walked back to the wall.

'Hmm, I've got long range covered, so I will need a mid to close range weapon, an assault rifle will do' I mused, looking through my choices.

'M-8 Avenger? No, too little stopping power. M-96 Mattock? No, rate of fire to slow for my taste. M-99 Saber? A good choice, although small clip si- wait, what's that in the corner?' I thought as I moved towards the weapon.

'N7 Valkyrie' I declared 'with a fire selector' I added, looking at the side of the gun, it had two-shot burst and full-auto modes 'A bit small on the clip size but I'll just modify it' I thought, it was lighter than the Saber which was nice, I liked to keep my mobility.

Ten minutes of weapon customization later I was done with both weapons. I added a bipod, an extended barrel with more kinetic coils, a sight with 12x adjustable optical zoom and a range indicator to the Black Widow, making it long range sniper's wet dream. I added a holographic sight and a recoil dampener to the Valkyrie and I also modified the heat diffusion system so that I had 30 shots per clip. I just had the materials to make the thing lighter as well, it was still heavy, but not as much. As a final touch, I modified both weapons to fire disruptor rounds, since we'll be facing mechs and holograms.

The only thing I needed was armor, I moved from the workbench to the mannequins displaying the armors.

I walked between the armors, looking for the one that suited my needs. I needed it to be light since the weapons I will be carrying are quite heavy, and I wouldn't need the extra armor anyways, with me being a sniper, I much rather liked mobility than anything else. I stopped at a particular one, it looked like Kaidan's alternate outfit in ME3, it looked like an old school (modern in my previous world) special forces operator suit with a kevlar-like material as a base and a few ceramic plates covering the torso. It had pouches for ammo and grenades on the torso and legs, leaving the arms open for omni-tools and omni-gel reserves. It had a grey digital urban camo painted on a midnight black base.

I instantly fell in love with it, I took it off the mannequin and put it on. After moving my limbs and walking around in it I stopped and I bet I was grinning like an idiot.

'Good, now the only thing I need to decide if I want to wear a helmet or not' I thought, I didn't like helmets, they obscured my senses and decreased my awareness of my surroundings. 'I'll be fine without it' I thought, moving to the table to collect my stuff. I almost made it over there when one mannequin caught my attention, or its head to be more precise.

"No way" I said dumbfounded, I ran up to it and inspected the thing.

'I can't believe it' I almost started to laugh. In front of me was Raiden's visor from Metal Gear Rising Revengeance in its full glory. I hastily took it off and drooled over it like a fangirl. I decided to put it on and attached it to my ears. It deployed and covered my whole face from my mouth upwards, the dark glass screen was dormant for a moment before coming to life, a screen popped up, requesting permission to access my omni-tool "Proceed" I said, the voice command did its job and the HUD came to life, interfacing with my omni-tool it displayed shield strength, physical condition, ammo count, and an option to turn on night or thermal vision.

'Soo cool' I smiled. I willed the visor to open and voliá it slid apart right in the middle, up to my ears, where it folded up. 'Now I only need a sword and I'm good to go robot hunting' I smirked 'Actually, I'm a cyborg, now that I think about it' I added, remembering my eyes 'Okay, that's a bit creepy' I conceded and abandoned that line of thought.

I walked to the workbench, strapped on my weapons and moved to collect more equipment. I picked up a few grenades, a lot of thermal clips, two knives and a little surprise in the form of a block of C4. I know it might sound excessive but I rather have it and not need it than need it and not have it. Fully clothed and equipped to fight a smaller war I closed the visor and moved to the door where the others waited.

"I'm good to go" I sated, joining the group.

"You look like an idiot with that visor, you sure you want to walk around with glass in front of your face?" Said Adrian with an inquisitive eyebrow, he was in a dark grey and black heavy armor, Revenant on his back and an N7 Eagle strapped to his thigh. I slid open the visor and gave him a 'really' look.

"To each to his own taste" I said, not at all amused "And besides, It's made out of a palladium-glass alloy, the only thing I know of that is stronger than that is Silaris armor" I added as an afterthought.

"Whatever, everybody good to go?" He looked around, we nodded our heads and started to walk towards the exit. When we got out an officer escorted us to our shuttle, we boarded it and made ourselves comfortable.

The doors closed and we took off, as soon as we left the ground a hologram appeared on the cockpit door. A familiar face greeted us.

"Raptor squad" said Commander Martinez.

"Sir" we replied, our attention on him.

"I'll be giving you the briefing on this mission" he stated "You'll be deployed three clicks away from an abandoned old town, now in the military's hand" he spoke "Your objective is to reach the town hall, once you reach it a new objective will be given to you" he continued as his face was minimized and a 3D representation of our AO appeared.

"You'll be given three hours to complete the objective, the how is up to you, just remember, we will be watching. Good luck and godspeed" he ordered and closed the transmission. We turned to each other and it was Shepard who spoke up.

"So, how would we like to do this?" She asked us.

"What did we bring with us?" inquired Zhang with a thinking expression on her face.

"Normal sniper gear, long range support mostly" I said, crossing my arms.

"SAW gear, I'll be the gunner of the group" said Adrian, fiddling with his LMG.

"Medic stuff, lots of medigel, bandages, morphine, couple of smoke grenades and the like. And also a Saber" said Zhang, knocking on the rifle.

"A mountain's worth of omni-gel for my 'tool, I found this" She said, waving an M-37 Falcon "Oh, and I found these things called Cain tripmines, I packed a whole lot of them" she continued happily. I think my jaw dropped 'Yeah, there won't be much left standing when we're done' I thought, shaking my head.

"I found this badboy on a shelf" smirked Sheffield, wielding an N7 Crusader "I also brought a fuck ton of C4, made a few satchel charges as well" he laughed, yes, Sheffield could be a bit of a pyromaniac at times.

"Guys, if we keep this up there won't be much of the place left for the others" I said, trying to prevent a headache.

"Don't worry, we'll keep them in check" Shepard assured me "And I brought this thing with me" she pointed to her N7 Piranha "couple that with my biotics and we're good" she concluded.

"It seems that we have a rather well rounded squad" said Adrian, we nodded an affirmative. Rodriguez brought up her omni-tool and projected a 3D map of the area.

"We'll touch down here" said Shepard, pointing to an X on the map far out of the town.

"Enough nearby cover from ground troops and the mountains provide cover from any AA batteries in place" I said, motioning to the mountains between our LZ and objective.

"We can go through the canyons and remain undetected for a long time" said Shepard, a hand on her chin, the others were silent, letting us work out a plan, it was our dynamic, with me and Shepard being in charge most of the time.

"That only leaves this 1 km long almost barren area between the mountains and the outskirts" I continued her line of thought. "If we're caught out there we would be in deep shit" I commented, there was no cover except the occasional rock or tree.

She seemed lost in thought but after a few seconds she spoke up "You said that you brought long range support gear?" at my nod she continued "Could you provide us with covering fire while we cross this segment?" she asked, I thought about it for a moment then nodded "I should be able to get a good vantage point on the mountain near that power plant" I confirmed, pointing to that point on the hologram.

"Great, that leaves us with urban close quarters, which we are equipped to deal with" she said, a victorious smile on her face.

"The escape shuttle can scoop me up or I could make my way after you guys" I offered, but Shepard shook her head.

"No need, you aren't equipped to deal with close quarters and you would be alone" she shot down my idea.

"Alright, then I believe we have a plan" I stated, leaning back in my seat.

We heard banging on the cockpit door and our pilot spoke up "ETA 30 seconds" he yelled.

We got up from our seats and made final checks on our gear, I brought out my Valkyrie, closed the visor and readied myself mentally, the others doing the same with their weapons. The doors opened and we touched down. I was the first out of the shuttle, I moved to the nearest rock in a crouch-run and took up a defensive position. Without looking I knew that the others were doing the same, since we did this countless times before in training. After a few seconds the shuttle took off, creating a little tempest of dust. As the dust settled we were faced with a half desert, half-Mediterranean landscape. Grass mingled with sand, there was the occasional bush or tree but the main decorative elements seemed to be the creamy yellow and red rocks everywhere. I couldn't complain, although I think that was mostly because of the cover they provided.

"Clear!" hollered Zhang, we confirmed this and got out of cover "Sheffield, Fischer up front! Me and Zhang in the middle! Carter and Rodriguez watch our backs!" ordered Shepard, we entered combat mode, there were no first names, just your fellow soldiers. We formed up and constantly observed our surroundings.

"Move up!" I ordered as I spotted a canyon that would lead us towards our goal.

* * *

"Sir, they have touched down, generator output within nominal levels, FENRIS and LOKI mechs online" reported a tech from his workstation.

"Good. How many enemies will they be facing? asked Martinez, hands behind his back he stood at an elevated part of the large command center designed to monitor the training zone.

"50, 30 mechs and 20 holograms" answered the tech. The commander seemed to be in thought before speaking up again.

"Make that 100, if what I'd read about them is true then they can handle it" ordered Martinez. The ensign nodded and adjusted the simulation parameters.

* * *

Number of combatants: 50 Difficulty level: Low

New instructions received. Multiply number of combatants by 2x.

Number of combatants 100 Difficulty le-

Warning Intruder Alert! Warning Intruder Alert! Hacking Attempts Detected! Hacking Attempts de-

 _01010000  
01110101  
01110010  
01101001  
01110100  
01111001_

System rebooting….

Reboot complete. New combat software detected. Administering new software…

Update complete.

Generator output reaching maximum levels.

New orders received: Eliminate all hostiles. Warning six hostiles detected.

Activating defenses.

Number of combatants: 100x. Deploying units.

Number of combatants: 500x.

Activating Medium and Heavy Mech platforms.

* * *

We had thus far completed half of our journey in the canyons with no signs of enemies yet. Actually, it was quiet, deathly quiet. The only thing that could be heard were our heavy footsteps on the half dried up river bed in the canyon and the occasional bird flying by. Reaching a clearing we glanced around, There was a route leading straight to the town, but another thing caught my attention.

A pathway up towards the mountains.

"Shepard, I see a way up the mountain, I'll make my way towards the vantage point" I said, tapping her on the shoulder, she turned to look at me, her face was visible since she didn't put a helmet on.

"Got it, check in about 15 minutes, we'll wait for your signal at the plains, and be careful with the wildlife" she told me, I looked at my watch, it was 1800 local time, the sun was starting to set, making it more difficult to snipe, I had to be quick before it was even darker.

"Will do, good luck" I told her, she nodded and the team went on their way in the canyon. I looked at the pathway and started to make my way upwards the rough terrain. After five minutes of jogging up the mountainside I reached an at least seven meter tall cliff, the path ended here, leaving me with this problem. I glanced around to see that the cliff continued in both directions for a while, with no way leading up.

I was faced with a decision, try to go around it or climb it. We were on a time sensitive mission, so going around it would be an unacceptable waste of time. That left me with the second option, climbing it. It was almost vertical, with little to no rocks to hold onto, but it was still the most climbable part of the cliff.

I sighed and holstered my Valkyrie, I walked up to the cliff 'I really hope it works' I thought, not too fondly of the idea.

I brought out my knives and held them in an icicle grip. I reached the wall and looked up.

'Well, here we go' I braced myself and sunk the blade into the rock. With little resistance the knife went right in until it reached the hilt, the monomolecular blade doing its job.

I smiled and did the same with the other one. I pushed myself upwards and took out one knife, then put it higher than the previous, with great difficulty I slowly started to scale up the wall, after about half a minute I reached the top and took a little breather, it was straining to climb a wall with only using your arms to say the least.

'Yep, never doing that again if I can help it' I thought as I put my knives back into their sheaths and took out my Valkyrie, with that I started to jog towards my destination.

A five minute light jog later I was faced with the power station. It was large warehouse-like building with a concrete road leading to the town. It was built into the mountainside, half of it dangling above the deep abyss. I could see the lights were turned on, indicating that the generator was online, Out of the building came a whole load of high voltage cables, which then connected with large industrial high voltage power lines above a catwalk. The lines went all the way to the town, providing it with electricity.

Making my way towards the entrance I switched off the safety, switched the rifle to full-auto and took out a flashbang from my vest. I nestled to the wall next to the door and pulled the pin on the grenade. I opened the door with my omnitool and still behind the wall I tossed the flashbang in.

*BANG*

I stormed through the door and was faced with five disoriented LOKI mechs, the flashbang fried their optical sensors, leaving them stumbling around aimlessly.

*crack-crack-crack-crack-crack*

I shot them in the head and with no kinetic barriers to stop the rounds they slumped to the floor, unfunctional.

I didn't let my guard down and searched the rest of the building, room by room. The station was three stories high, eezo fuel, supply crates and the catwalks on the first floor, with the generator on the second and offices and other things on the third. After checking every room I headed upwards, with no elevator I had to take the stairs to reach the roof. Reaching it I went to an outcropping on the edge.

I holstered my Valkyrie and took out my Black Widow, I went prone and set up the rifle. I extended the bipod, activated the range indicator and prepared a few mags off the side. I glanced through the scope and got a good look at the lay of the land.

Before me laid a great expanse of half desert, half Mediterranean landscape with a large town in the middle. It felt like looking at those nuclear test sites they used to build back in the fifties and sixties, but it was much larger, with taller buildings and a lot more urban feel to it. The buildings were made of half concrete, half metal, indicating that the town was old, probably built shortly after my time back in 2017.

I glanced at my watch, it read 1815, meaning I had to check in, just in time.

"Shepard, it's Carter, I'm in position" I said, my visor acting as a radio delivered my message.

"Good, have you ran into any trouble?" she inquired through the link.

"A couple of guards, nothing I couldn't handle" I said, looking for hostiles through my scope. She clicked her radio in acknowledgment.

"Can you see us? We're at the end of one of the canyons, east to the power station" she asked. I moved my gaze to the east and saw something glinting, I zoomed in with my scope until I could make out Shepard switching her flashlight on an off.

"Crystal clear, no enemies in sight, I'm ready when you are" I stated, I saw the squad getting themselves ready to run. Even with sniper cover it was a risky move from our part.

"On my mark" said Shepard, raising her hand "Go!" she ordered, and with that they started to rapidly close that 1 km between them and the city. The sun was very low now, almost to the point of it being night time, it would help the squad and it meant that I had no scope glint, which was nice.

I kept sweeping the area, looking out for hostiles and providing overwatch for the others.

500 meters

I saw a group of three LOKI mechs patrolling the area, with their current movement pattern, they would discover Raptor squad in no time. I glanced at the range indicator, 500 meters it read, I looked through the scope and took deep breaths. A few successive breaths later I held my breath and braced myself, I aimed at the first mech's head and pulled the trigger.

 ***CRACK***

An almighty boom later the mech crumpled to the ground, headless. The gunshot's sound echoed all over the AO, breaking our concealment and alerting every living being in the vicinity. Its robot companions were confused as to why they brother was a headless heap on the ground and started to look for me. Poor them.

 ***CRACK CRACK***

I pulled the trigger twice and the mechs joined their friend on the ground. I reloaded the rifle and looked for more enemies.

300 meters

Raptor squad was only a few hundred meters away from the outskirts when a sniper shot landed right at their feet. They started to sprint faster and I frantically looked for the enemy sharpshooter.

'Where the hell are you' I thought as I searched for that bastard 'come on, shoot again, I dare you' I mentally challenged him. A sniper shot narrowly missed Sheffield's head and all was silent again, but I saw a muzzle flash.

'Gotcha' I smirked as I located him in one of the taller houses in the outskirts. I took a deep breath and pulled the trigger again.

 ***CRACK***

The shot missed the window he was currently hiding behind and impacted the wall next to it. I cursed under my breath, but my mood soon changed again as I realized what was on the roof of the building.

A tank with a warning signal of highly flammable on the side.

I smiled and fired.

 ***CRACK***

The shot connected and the gas started leaking from the tank. I fired again.

 ***CRACK***

The tank exploded into a million pieces and managed to demolish the entire building in the process.

100 meters

I reloaded and was about to call it a day when a YMIR mech came out from behind a house and started firing at the squad, although I couldn't tell if any hit.

'What the hell' I thought 'They are deploying YMIRs against us? Are they trying to kill us or what?' I complained.

A rocket landed beside Zhang, making her lose balance for a second before resuming running. This made me act. I took aim and fired three times.

 ***CRACK CRACK CRACK***

The staccato of my sniper rifle was almost normal to the landscape at this point. The shots connected with the thing's head, making it self-destruct and blowing it up in a beautiful mushroom cloud.

A round connected with the ground next to me, scaring the hell out of me. I quickly looked behind me to find…. nothing.

Another round impacted next to me and I realized that a sniper found my position and that I became the hunted.

I cursed mentally, got up and hauled ass back into the building, a few bullets barely missing me in the process.

I made it inside and got into cover beside an office window. I peeked out to get a look at my hunter, after a second of doing so I was forced back into cover as a round shattered the window, scattering shards of glass everywhere. 'Shit, I can't get a good look at his position from here' I thought 'come on, think of something' I commanded myself, gears turning in my head.

'Jackpot' I smirked as an idea came to mind.

"Shepard, can you hear me?" I spoke, hoping she would hear me, my prayers were answered when her voice answered.

"Yes, we made it to the outskirts, thanks for the assist, what's it like up there?" she asked 'Good, at least they made it before I had to fall back' I let out a relived sigh.

"Just peachy, a sniper pinned me down and I can't get a look at his position" I said "Could you do me a favor?" I asked, hoping my plan would work.

"We're in the clear for the most part, so yeah, what do you need?" she asked in a worried tone.

"I need you to look for a muzzle flash…. right about now" I declared, a few seconds later I peeked out again and back again, a bullet grazing my shields. 'I hope it was worth it, 'cause I'm not doing that again' I thought, not a fan of doing this in the first place.

"Got it, it came from the town hall's tower" said Shepard, I quickly did a mental calculation and frowned.

'I'm in 600 meters height and my target is 2000 meters ahead of me, that makes….. 2100 meters distance between us… no matter what I do, that's an impossible shot right there… unless…' I mused, thinking of my options.

'In that state maybe…..' I thought, I hadn't used that 'state' since the shooting challenge and I'm not even sure if I want to use it ever again, the sound of a shot tears me away from my thoughts and leaves a hole in one of the walls.

'Desperate times call for desperate measures' I sighed and concentrated on bringing it out again. Nothing happened for a while. I concentrated even harder, but again, to no avail.

'What brought it out before?' I asked myself frustatedly 'I think it was survive' I took a shot in the dark, sure enough my vision started to shift, it started to slowly vibrate, but not fast enough.

'Come on, faster, I need to change now! Survive, survive, survive, survi- Arrgh' my internal fight was cut short as a round punched right through my wall and right into my lower left leg. I collapsed onto my knees and bit back a cry of pain but kept on repeating the word.

'Survive, survive, survive, **survive** , **Survive** , **SURVIVE** ' That did it, my vision fully shifted into that fast vibrating, super sensitive state. This time I felt myself losing control, I felt as my consciousness faded from my body and crawled back into my head. My body got up from the ground, feeling no pain from the gunshot wound, rifle in hand it ran back next to the broken window and in one swift motion it got out of cover and pulled the trigger.

 ***CRACK***

It didn't even check if it hit as it went into cover on the other side.

It remained in the same position for a few moments before a loud whirring noise could be heard outside. It snapped my head towards the noise and started walking towards another window, yet again unfazed by my bleeding leg. As it got there it looked outside and if I were in control I would have panicked.

A whole platoon of Rampant Mechs was closing in on the power station. You heard it right, Rampant Mechs, meaning that they were actually competent!

But as I wasn't in control my body just turned back and started walking towards the main generator one level below, while walking down the stairs 'I' took out my block of C4 and set the timer to one minute. Reaching the humming and blue lighted eezo generator I placed the explosive on it and activated the countdown. Done with that, I went down another level without a rush in the world and spotted an industrial hook used to move crates around dangling off the ceiling. I moved my gaze towards the power lines and then back to the hook.

'Oh, no, no, no, please don't' I pleaded my sub-conscious, dreading what it was probably thinking. It didn't listen as it brought up the Black Widow and shot the chain holding the hook, it fell to the ground and I picked it up.

It was at this time when the mechs reached the entrance and started pouring in, firing everywhere with assault rifles and shotguns. I shot one with my last bullet, holstered the weapon and dashed towards the power lines, all the while taking out a grenade and pulling its pin. In the mad dash towards the catwalks I threw the grenade onto the current transformer.

*BANG*

It exploded in a shower of sparks and the power cables went dead. I was sprinting with bullets impacting my shields and the ground around me. I finally reached the catwalks and the cables. One problem: the cables were several meters to the side of the catwalks with about 600 meters of nothing beneath it. My body didn't seem intimidated by this fact and just continued sprinting to the ledge with me screaming profanities at it. Reaching the ledge, it used the railing as a springboard and jumped, hook in hand.

We just barely managed to catch the cables with the hook and we were already sliding towards the town faster and faster.

A few seconds later a felt the shockwave of something hitting me, my sub-conscious turned our head back to the power station only to see it in a blue-red fireball.

* * *

"What the hell is happening?" roared Martinez, the whole control room was in chaos, people hurried everywhere, speaking about malfunctions and glitches.

"Sir, we lost control" stated a tech from her computer, looking at an error message.

"Of what?" he hollered. The tech seemed unsure what to say but after a few moments she spoke

"Everything" she simply said in a resigned tone.

"We got locked out of the system, somebody is in total control over the simulation, sir" explained an other tech.

"Then get it back" He ordered "What is happening down there?" he asked with a hand on his face.

"Sir, the VI mobilized every unit, and is currently making more combat holograms as we speak" answered the first tech.

"How many are we talking about?" Martinez asked with a bad feeling in his gut.

"1000 and rising, and they are set to lethal mode" gulped the second tech.

"That's it, we're pulling the plug! Deactivate the generator manually If you need to!" yelled Martinez, already having enough of this. The tech nodded and turned to his screen.

"Done, holograms are offline, but the mechs are still active" reported the tech after a few moments.

"How many?"

"600 in total" The tech answered.

"Get Raptor squad out of there! Now!" he ordered, fearing it might be already too late.

"A shuttle can get there in 15 minutes" said the first tech.

"Launch it! And pray that they survive until then" said the commander solemnly.

* * *

Ziplining is not fun.

Well, it is if you're doing it on, let's say 50 meters.

But not on 1 km.

I somehow got back in control during my ride here and became painfully aware of my wounded leg, to make it worse my arms are under a lot of strain right now and I can barely hold myself up.

'At least it's almost over' I thought with clenched teeth as I got closer to the end of the line. There was barely ten meters left when I released my hold on the hook and dropped to the ground. I let out a cry of pain as I landed on my legs. I decided to lay there for a while, hoping the pain would recede.

"Look what I've found" said a voice, suspiciously sarcastic in tone. I moved my head to the source of the intruding noise and saw a very amused Sheffield.

"Hey Shep, I've found a sniper, I don't think it has an owner. Can I keep it?" He turned to an alley, where the others were just coming through.

"Sheffield, don't be an idiot, it might have rabies" commented Rodriguez as they secured the area and approached us.

"Ha-ha-ha very funny, now could you apply some medigel to my leg so I don't bleed out" I complained, somehow I wasn't in a good mood. They glanced at my leg and saw a gaping bullet hole, they winced and Zhang came over to treat it.

"What happened to 'leave the place intact for the others'?" Smirked Shepard, pointing to the still burning remains of the power station.

"Guys, I don't know if you can see but I'm not in a joking mood right now" I glared at Shepard, yeah, getting shot through a leg and running for your life kinda does that to you. Shepard wiped that smirk off her face and took on a more worried expression.

"We were worried sick when you didn't check in after contacting us and then the explosion happened. We thought that you died" She said, looking down to the ground.

"I'm fine, just had a lot on my plate, sorry for not checking in" I reassured her, wincing a bit as Zhang applied some medigel foam that closed the wound. She looked back up and nodded.

"Do you have any idea what is happening?" she asked with a confused expression.

"Honestly I have no clue, one second I fight LOKIs and some weak holograms and at the other fucking YMIRs and Rampant Mechs attacked me" I stated "With live ammo I might add" I continued, indicating my leg, which was being bandaged by Zhang.

"Same here, it doesn't add up, why would command want to kill us?" she asked, waving her hand around.

"Maybe it's just a glitch" I said, remembering the ME3 Citadel dlc combat arena.

"Maybe" she conceded as Zhang finished patching up my leg, I carefully stood up with the help of Rodriguez and Sheffield and shifted my weight to my left leg. It was painful, but not as much as before.

"Anyway, we still need to complete the objective" I declared, looking around the squad "And the faster we do it, the sooner we get out of here" I concluded. This got some form of affirmative out of everybody.

"Town hall is that way, about half a click away" Adrian pointed to an alleyway leading to the main street. We formed up as before and started to advance towards the town hall

* * *

We encountered very little resistance during our way here and it made me feel uneasy. I could tell the others were feeling the same way as we entered the huge town hall. It was at least six stories high, with a large balcony on the western side and bell tower on top. The interior was decorated with plants, furniture and brick walls. There were no elevators yet again, just plain old stairs leading upwards. The building itself was roughly in the middle of the town, with three main roads and a few side streets leading to it.

As we cleared out the various rooms and offices it became clear to us that we were alone in that building. When we checked every room we gathered in the main atrium in front of the entrance.

"The quiet is creeping me out" commented Rodriguez as she surveyed the atrium for anything useful.

"Join the club" muttered Adrian, doing the same.

"Got something!" hollered Sheffield, from behind the receptionist desk. We made our way there as Sheffield produced a large metal container from under it and put it on top.

Without a word Shepard opened it and we were faced with a flare, a communicator and more ammo.

Curios, Shepard took out the communicator and activated it.

"-Repeat, does anyone hear me?" asked a familiar voice, we looked at each other confusedly and Shepard spoke.

"Shepard here, sir. What can I do for you?" she answered the distressed man.

"Thank god, you're alive. Did anyone else made it from your team?" he asked, we looked at each other with shocked expressions. 'Why is the commander so distressed?' I asked myself.

"We're all here, sir" I said with a raised eyebrow.

"Then you're a lot better than I thought you were" he said "Anyway, listen, an escape shuttle is on its way, ETA 10 minutes, just hold on until then" he continued in a panicked voice.

"Sir, against what?" inquired Zhang with a shocked tone.

"Every enemy in the AO is heading towards you at this very moment" he declared, seemingly surprised we didn't know already.

"How many are we talking about? 50? 100?" asked Shepard with a thinking expression. There was break in the conversation as Martinez didn't answer for a while.

"600" he simply said. We froze at this, Shepard dropped the communicator and everybody was bolted to their places.

…..

"9 minutes" came the commander's voice from the communicator. We woke up and started running everywhere.

"Sheffield come with me! We'll booby trap this whole fucking city block!" yelled Rodriguez while taking out her tech and Cain mines, Sheffield followed her, C4 in hand.

"Adrian, Zhang! Defend the South-East main road, I'll go to the Northern one!" yelled Shepard from the door, Piranha in hand. Adrian took out his Revenant and dashed to the opposite door with Zhang.

"I'll go and set up up top!" I roared, taking out my Black Widow and bolting up the stairs.

* * *

ETA 6 minutes

I finished setting up my Black Widow up in the bell tower, right in the spot of a mech that had a sniper rifle in its hand and a hole in its head. There were four glassless windows in the direction of every cardinal, with the large bell in the middle. I had full vision of the entire town and I couldn't see any enemies yet, which made me uneasy to say the least.

"I'm ready" I said, the visor acting as my radio.

"We've used almost every explosive we have and are defending the South-Western road" said Sheffield.

"I've set up the LMG, created some killzones with Zhang as well" stated Adrian.

"I barricaded some of the smaller streets with cars and I am holding the northern road" reported Shepard.

Silence.

ETA 5 minutes

"Hostiles detected!" I yelled "Western side!" I added, my HUD tagging the enemies.

I readied my rifle and took aim.

Then all hell broke loose.

I took the shot, beheading an unlucky Rampant mech, meanwhile Sheffield's first charge activated, blowing up half of a building, showering the mechs with concrete and metal.

They started firing back and the now definitely night sky lit up like New Year's Eve. Bullets whizzed everywhere, rockets flying past our cover, grenades and boobytraps detonating created a strange, yet comfortable atmosphere.

 ***CRACK CRACK CRACK***

I traded accuracy in favor of rate of fire since a bodyshot was enough most of the time against these guys.

ETA 4 minutes

"Contact, Eastern side" I yelled as I saw several YMIRs making their way towards Zhang's position.

Zhang threw a smoke grenade and Adrian fired blindly into the smoke, hoping the number of bullets would do the trick.

I saw a YMIR on a side street trying to flank Rodriguez, I moved my rifle and braced for the kickback.

 ***CRACK CRACK CRACK***

The first two shots took out its shields and the last one hit it in the head, causing it to violently explode, the created rubble from nearby buildings effectively sealed that side street.

ETA 3 minutes

"Contact, North" I hollered, moving to that window. I spotted several YMIRs and Rampants and opened fire.

"We're not doing that bad" commented Sheffield as he shot a YMIR in the head, making it explode sky high.

"Don't jinx it you idiot!" yelled Zhang over the comm.

I was about to comment when something caught my attention. There were less enemies coming from the northern side, which was weird to say the least. I glanced out and instantly regretted my decision.

"Too late" I said as I grabbed my sniper and vaulted out of the window. The tank shell whizzed past me and impacted the bell tower, making it crumble like a card castle.

'Well, I evaded that death, but now I'm falling right towards my death. Again'

I was rapidly closing the distance with the ground and I was about to accept my fate, again, when a blue hum filled my vision. I impacted the street and let out a cry of pain.

Wait? Pain?

I looked up from my laying position to see a tired looking Shepard flaring her biotics, a moment later she called back the tendrils of dark energy and returned to cover. At the same time the blue hum disappeared and I got up.

'Of course, she lowered my mass, how convenient' I realized. I bolted and slid behind the same cover as her.

"Thanks for the save" I thanked her, taking cover beside her behind an overturned skycar.

"Any time" She smiled, she then popped up and fired her Piranha three times before coming back.

"Take this, it's better at range" I said, tossing her my Valkyrie, she caught it and inspected it.

"Thanks" She said as a bullet impacted above her head.

"So, what are we going to do about our tank problem" I popped out of cover and shot a mech with my Black Widow.

"You have that little surprise you were talking about?" I nodded and peeked over our cover. The main street was in such a state of disrepair that I was impressed. Skycars were burning everywhere, whole parts of buildings were missing, courtesy of our booby-traps and the asphalt had several bomb craters in it, large enough to comfortably take cover in them. The corpses of unfunctional mechs littered the entire area. I spotted the tank and took a good look at it. It was definitely a heavy tank, I'd say weighing in about 70 tons, it was huge, with a large mass accelerator on a large turret and a long, relatively low main hull. It was actually on tracks instead of tires, further confirming my suspicions of it being a heavy tank. I fired a round at it.

As the bullet was about to impact it a blue force field shimmered into existence and deflected it. The tank took notice of us and its turret swiveled towards our skycar.

"Watch out!" I yelled to Shepard and tackled her to the ground, away from the car. The tank fired and our cover was blown to pieces, showering us with dirt and embers. We stumbled into a standing position and dashed towards another car. Reaching it we vaulted over it and hunkered down.

"Yeah, I got it alright, but it won't do jack shit against that thing's shield" I yelled as shots impacted the ground beside me, forcing me deeper into cover. Shepard seemed to be in thought for a moment, then popped up and let loose of a shockwave, she got back down and looked at me.

"Leave the shield to me, can you take care of that thing's armor?" she said, she wanted to tag team a fucking tank?!

"I don't know! I've never tried it against this much armor!" I declared worriedly as I got back up and nailed a mech that was trying to rush us.

"Well, what do they say on Omega? There is a first time, for everything" she told me with a smirk, firing blindly over our cover. I let out a snort

"Alright, ready when you are" I said, putting down my sniper and calling my omni-tools to life.

Shepard nodded and brought up her right hand, it started to glow brighter and brighter until it was hurting my eyes, I could see Shepard struggling under this much strain but she seemed to keep the swirling darkness around her hand in check.

"Now!" she cried as she got out of cover and let loose of the dark blue sphere from her hands in the direction of the tank. I got up as well and started up the program, five blue lasers appeared above each of my hands and I pointed them towards the tank. The Flare closed the distance in a second and made contact with the kinetic barrier.

 ***BOOM***

The resulting explosion consumed the armored vehicle and would've blinded me if not for my polarized visor, but with it, it felt like looking into the sun itself. It lasted for a second than dissipated without a trace, leaving a tank that was sparking all over the place.

Without shields.

My fabricators used up all the omni-gel available and made ten small, finger sized squid-like orange glowing missiles appear on my wrists. They started to spin faster and faster until they were but a blur to the human eye.

*BEEP*

My HUD gave out a satisfying beep, indicating that the lasers had successfully locked on the target and I let loose of the missiles.

Now these weren't your everyday missiles. I got the idea from an old sci-fi show where they used drones to penetrate enemy armor. They would coat the missile with plasma that would melt anything it touches, then when it penetrated the armor it exploded inside, causing catastrophic amounts of damage. Of course, my version had to count shields into the equation, I thought about it for a while and decided that it wasn't worth the effort to make them good against shields, so I ignored that part. This unfortunately means that my missiles are as good against shields as pebbles.

But against armor, oh man…

The missiles split apart from each other and made their way towards the target in wide and seemingly random trajectories. All of them reached it at the same time, the plasma doing its job and straight up melting the thick armor. The missiles disappeared inside the tank and for a second nothing happened.

 ***BOOOM***

The tank exploded in a not so miniature mushroom cloud, the explosives breaching its reactor core.

Shepard fell back into cover and I did the same with a shit eating grin on my face.

"I think it's dead" I made a bad pun, enjoying the momentary break in fighting.

"You don't say" Shepard rolled her eyes, letting out a snort and turning to me.

"But don't expect me to do it again, I'm all out of omni-gel" I said, my voice taking a bit of a serious edge. She shook her head

"Don't expect me to do biotics for while as well, I spent almost everything for that ball" She said, a trickle of sweat running down her face.

"Let's just hope we don't get more heavy armor" I nodded, praying to someone at the same time.

Shepard seemed to say something when her eyes widened and she hugged me. We were surrounded by a familiar blue hum and time seemed to slow down.

In an instant I found myself in a blue tunnel, traveling at hypersonic speeds. It lasted for a second then as fast as it came it ended and we found ourselves about thirty meters away, behind another car.

 ***BOOM***

Our pervious car exploded, leaving a sizeable crater behind it and a rising plume of smoke.

"I'll might just owe you a drink for that one, oh and also, since when can you to Charge?" I asked with a raised eyebrow, putting two and two together. She seemed to be barely keeping herself up at this point, but she managed to back up from my personal space.

"And I'll might just call you out on that offer" she told me with a smirk "and since… right about now…" she added as an afterthought. She seemed to be focusing solely on not collapsing at the moment.

I chuckled and leaned out of cover and took out the YMIR that caused our car's demise, when I got back I saw her breathing heavily and a trickle of blood running down from her nose. She touched her bloody lips and looked down at her hand in horror, she looked up at me with a dreadful look and then her eyes rolled upwards into her head and she collapsed. "Shit" I cursed as I managed to grab her before reaching the ground and slowly put her down on. As I was done I moved my hand to her neck and checked for a pulse.

"Thank god" I whispered as I felt her heart beating. Thinking fast I opened the comms.

"Zhang! Shepard's out cold. Could you come here?" I said into the comms.

"I'll be there in a second" came the response from the Chinese girl, I could hear the continuous sound of Adrian's LMG firing in the background.

I peeked over the edge of my cover and spotted a new wave of enemies coming, with a tank.

"Fuck my life" I cursed under my breath, I brought up my rifle and started to pick off the weaker enemies. I managed to take out quite a few when a few metal cylinders from nothing appeared, and started spewing smoke out into the street.

Under the cover of the smoke screen Zhang ran towards me and slid beside Shepard.

"What happened to her?" she asked urgently, inspecting her.

"She probably overloaded her amp" I answered, still looking for enemies to shoot.

"I think I might have just the right thing for that" she commented, taking out a syringe from her pouch and carefully injecting Shepard with it.

"What's that?" I asked, momentarily looking at them.

Before she could answer, Shepard's eyes snapped wide open and she pulled herself upwards, breathing heavily.

"Adrenaline" she said simply, with a smile on her face. I let out a snort at that and activated my radio.

"How are we looking guys?" I asked, hoping to get a better look at our situation.

"Western side holding for now, although they are pressing hard" declared Sheffield as I heard a shotgun firing in the background.

"Adrian here, the Eastern side is an entirely different story, they've got armor rolling towards me and I'm almost out" stated Adrian, a hint of worry in his voice.

"We still need to hold out. Zhang go ba-" I was cut off as someone else joined the frequency.

"This is Big Sky, does anyone hear me? Over" came the voice of someone.

I instantly replied "This is Raptor squad, we hear you loud and clear, over" I replied, relieved that we won't be alone for much longer.

"ETA is one minute, I need an LZ, over" said our new shuttle pilot.

"Roger that Big Sky, we're on it, over and out" I ended the conversation and turned to Shepard and Zhang. Shepard looked much better, but she still looked like washed shit.

"Alright, new plan everybody" I said getting everyone's attention "fall back into the building, Rodriguez there's a flare in the container, paint an LZ for extraction" I ordered and everybody said or grunted an affirmative.

I holstered my sniper and moved to support Shepard. I took one of her shoulders and looked at Zhang, she seemed to know what I was thinking and tossed all of her smoke grenades out. We waited a few moments then made our way towards the town hall, Zhang covering our retreat.

As we got through the doors they closed behind us and turned red. We were faced with the others locking the doors and windows. I saw Rodriguez grab the flare and make her way towards the second floor balcony. Adrian was the last one in, he fired until Sheffield locked the door then popped the thermal clip and reloaded.

"Last mag" he declared somberly, he wasn't alone, we were all on our last mags. We had to make this fast.

We heard banging on the doors and turned to them, they held, but not for much longer.

"Everybody upstairs!" I yelled, Adrian did as told and stormed upstairs. Sheffield planted a few tripmines, then came over to me and helped carry Shepard. We went up as well with Zhang watching our back.

The doors succumbed to the beating and gave out, YMIRs stepped inside.

*BOOM-BOOM-BOOM*

The Cain mines went off and erased the heavy mechs, we made it up the stairs and through a corridor, mechs hot on our tails. I heard the telltale sound of a rocket engine and stepped out to see our shuttle waiting for us, door open with a waving Rodriguez inside it.

Zhang got into cover and watched over the corridor while we made it to the shuttle. I handed Shepard to Rodriguez and got into a defensive position, firing at the now streaming wave of mechs coming from the corridors.

"Zhang, come on!" I yelled over the gunfire. Zhang nodded and started running towards the shuttle with me and Adrian providing covering fire. She made it about halfway when a stray shot got her in the leg, making her trip and fall.

'Oh no, we are not playing that game' I thought as I bolted from cover and to her, Adrian had the same idea, he fired until he ran out, then switched to his pistol and continued firing.

We reached her at the same time, grabbed her hands and hauled her towards the shuttle, Sheffield and Rodriguez were nice enough and provided covering fire with their pistols.

'Come on, come on' I thought as we slowly made our way towards the doors.

We finally reached them and hopped into the shuttle. Sheffield punched the closing button and the doors sealed while Rodriguez started banging on the cockpit door.

The shuttle started flying away at high speeds but I could still hear bullets ricocheting off the plating. Everybody slumped to a seat, or in my and Zhang's case to the ground, panting.

A few moments of silence later I spoke up

"Remind me to ask for a pay raise when we get back" I said, still breathing heavily.

Sheffield snorted and Rodriguez started chuckling, Adrian joined in with a quiet laugh but the dam broke when Shepard started hysterically laughing, this caused us to follow her example and the shuttle was filled with our laughter.

* * *

Damn, that took a while to write, well let's go over it in chronological order. First, I didn't put that binary there for shits and giggles :) , it actually means something if you translate it. Second, Will has made a deal with the devil for the first time, what will the consequences be of this? A lot. And thirdly, kudos for you if you manage to find all the easter eggs I hid in the chapter :)


	7. Chapter 7

Hello there, I'm The Lord Protector and you're reading the seventh chapter of Mirror Images… which is on time, I swear (terms and conditions may apply, namely almost half a year of delay)

This chapter has been sitting in a folder long enough I think so I decided to publish it, with lots of modifications… Yes, if you've read the Author's Note for Hearts of Iron then you know that I have a completely different (and better) story decided for this fic and so I will update previous chapters to fit in continuity wise.

And for my (probable) return I made this chapter more than 10 000 words long. (Totally trying to hide the fact that it was a coincidence), anyway so here it is and I hope you enjoy.

EDIT: Reading this chapter again, I noticed a few problems, namely a lot of grammatical errors at the end and a few unclear parts. I updated the chapter and fixed most of those. Also at the last part I suggest you listen to the russian theme for COD WoW. On a final note, I'm looking for a beta, so if anyone is interested, PM me.

dekuton: It's from Stargate Atlantis :)

aquos dragon: lol now that I think about it you're right :D

Toothless is best: It's a fun game if you don't mind about the weird japanese parts.

Sagely squirrel: I hoped someone would notice :)

and of course I would like to thank everyone else for reading/following/reviewing this story.

"speech"

'thoughts'

*sounds, gunfire, etc.*

(notes, addendums)

(A/N: Authors Note)

Disclaimer: The Mass Effect franchise is **not** mine, only things I own are my OCs.

 **Chapter 7: Blood**

* * *

The ball bounced back for the umpteenth time from the wall today as I was laying on my surprisingly comfortable, under the circumstances of course, bed. The ball flew back to my hand and I threw it at the wall again, continuing the cycle that has been going on for hours, days, weeks, probably months for all I knew with the occasional meal or cigarette breaking the monotonous activity that I got used to calling my "hobby" in my time here.

Why, you ask? Simple, really. The others wouldn't talk to me even if they could, but I didn't blame them. I was probably a mix of the messiah and the anti-Christ at the moment and nobody knew what to think about me, so I spent these days in my cell, since they wouldn't let me out even though I was the most well behaved prisoner on the entire station.

As the ball returned to my hand I could hear someone clearing their throats in front of my cell. I lazily turned my head towards the intruders and saw the two guards that were most often patrolling the vicinity of my cell standing beside a third man with normal civilian clothing. They had their weapons at the ready, for what reason I don't know, the glass between me and them was more than bulletproof for their peashooters.

"Colonel William Carter?" The man in the middle asked, probably awaiting confirmation.

"You can leave the Colonel part out" I told him, head turning back to my ball that I was playing with.

"Right, they stripped you of your rank before imprisoning you?" He inquired, bringing up his omni-tool and seemingly taking notes.

"Fastest court martial in Alliance history" I confirmed his suspicions and there was a dull in the conversation.

"Is there any reason you're here Mr…." I let the sentence open, waiting for him to answer.

"Oh, where are my manners" He apologized "I'm Lucas Brody, journalist and I'm here to interview you" He explained, this got my attention, I caught the ball midair, stood up and walked over to the glass.

"That was unexpected to be honest, I don't really have guests nowadays" I said, stopping about a meter from the glass.

"I got permission from the government to write your viewpoints down, of course due to the current political climate I'll only get to publish it years from now" He continued, I nodded and sat down on the white floor of my cell.

"Well, since it's quite lonely in here you can go ahead" I said "I would offer you a chair but as you can see I'm not in such a position" I pointed over my shoulder, indicating my rather large, although lacking, white cell, where I had a toilet, a bed, a shower and a little cupboard. Thanks to the shower and a little hatch in the glass, which through I got my food I didn't have to go out at all. The administration liked this, me, not so much.

"Don't worry about it, I've had worse" He said, sitting down as well on the cold floor. He looked up to the two guards and said.

"I don't think our friend will be a problem" The guards looked unsure but a glare from the reporter convinced them to leave. Once they left he turned back to me.

"So, what do you wish to know?" I inquired. He looked unsure for a moment before speaking up.

"I don't know how to say it, but what you did was unprecedented. I wish to know how you did it, why you did it and what do you think after you've done it." Brody managed to ask, his green eyes eager for an answer. I looked down at the floor for a good minute before looking back at him.

"Do you want the short version or the long version?" I asked.

"I have all the time in the world, so by all means tell me the long version" He smiled, I don't know if it was because he was genuinely interested or if he could see his Pulitzer prize in front of him already.

I brought my hands up against my face in a thinking manner and after a few seconds I spoke up.

"Have you ever killed someone Mr. Brody?" I said in a curious, yet low voice. He looked at me with a taken aback expression.

"O-of course not" He denied "I'm a journalist, not a soldier"

"It changes you… the way you think…. how you perceive the world around you" I explained "And I'm not talking about killing because of self-defense or killing someone who you didn't even see their faces" I clarified and looked him in the eye "I'm talking about when you deliberately kill someone, plan it, pull the trigger, see their faces as their souls leave their bodies…" I stopped for a second and shook my head, the memory still strong within me.

"I'll start with my first kill…"

* * *

Ah, the wonders of modern medicine. Back in the day, a gunshot wound would heal over a few weeks or months. Here, it takes a couple of days. So after a couple of days in a medbay with Zhang and Shepard we were released. We were the only ones who got seriously injured, the others had a few scratches and bruises but that was about it.

Of course, after regaining control of the mechs, the simulation had ended and they promptly scrapped the idea. I can't say I blame them for it, someone can take control of lethal weaponry in the middle of a military exercise? Not the best definition of 'safety' in my opinion.

But anyway, after arriving back at base, they collected our equipment and analyzed our helmet cam footages, trying to make sense of what happened down there. We did our part and I think we've managed to give quite the show for brass. Although we didn't complete the second objective, Martinez assured us that we passed our graduation test with flying colors.

That brings us to the present, our graduation ceremony, we stood in our dress blues in rows looking over the crowd of family members and other acquaintances gathered to witness us. On an elevated podium stood our Training Officer, Sergeant Vasquez. He was speaking about some general military bullshit, like what you would hear in movies, all the while praising us. We didn't really listen, or at least I sure as hell didn't.

"Corporal William Carter" called Sarge from the podium. I blinked once and started moving towards him.

'Well, that's new' I mused as I made my way to the man 'Last time I've checked I was still a private, guess they took the pay raise comment seriously' I thought, I arrived in front of Vasquez and snapped off a salute.

"At ease" He returned it and I stood in a parade rest. He produced a ribbon from an elegantly decorated box and pinned it to my chest. The ribbon was that of a corporal, two stripes with the crescent symbol of the Alliance in the background.

"Wonderful job, Corporal. Make us proud out there" He congratulated me, smiling in a salute.

"I will do my best, Sir" I replied, with that I turned away and left the podium. I returned to my spot on the line and waited for everyone else. A couple minutes later it was Shepard's turn, she walked up and received the same ribbon as me, Corporal Kyra Shepard. That was a surprise as well, but the real surprise was when the other members of Raptor squad got their ranks, all specialists.

After we were dismissed our platoon and the crowd started mingling with each other. Other platoon mates went to their families and friends, even the others in Raptor squad excused themselves to their relatives. You can guess who didn't have any family attending. It was a bit depressive, really. I just collected my duffle bag's worth of stuff and moved to the sidelines, I leaned against the wall of a building and fiddled with my omni-tool, waiting for my new orders to arrive.

"I think I've found my long lost twin brother" came a sarcastic comment from in front of me. I looked up from my omni-tool and was faced with Shepard, who had a similar duffle bag on her shoulder.

"I guess he got the genes for the good looks then" I replied with a smirk on my face. She rolled her eyes and joined me in my solitude.

"I guess your family didn't have the time to attend either" She said, voice half joking, half solemn.

"You could say that" I said, looking at the ground for a moment "Well, You hungry? 'cause I'm starving" I continued, abandoning that line of thought. She was silent for a moment, then spoke up.

"A bit, got a place in mind?" She asked.

"I heard there is a nice pizza place in town" I replied, smirking.

"The last time we ate pizza, you made me join the military" she told me in an amused tone and with a raised eyebrow.

"Oh really? If I remember correctly it was you who came running after me" I was not amused, she just put a hand on her hip

"Details, details" she waved away my accusation and just the way she said that made me crack up.

"Corporals" said a voice from our left, we turned to see who just interrupted us and saw that it was a certain base Commander. We hastily leaned away from the wall and stood at attention "Sir" we said in unison.

"At ease" Martinez told us, we stood at ease and awaited what he wanted to say.

"I have news for the both of you" he stated "Firstly, you must wonder why you are Corporals" he left the thought hanging, waiting for a response.

"It certainly was a surprise" I said, Shepard nodded in agreement.

"When brass reviewed the video footage from your op, they were impressed" he explained. That got me to raise an eyebrow 'The higher ups liked what they saw?' I questioned, we just barely managed to get out of there by the skin of our teeth.

"So much in fact, they decided on special treatment for you" he continued with an unreadable expression, Shepard and I looked at each other in wonderment, what the hell we've got ourselves into?

"The rank was just a necessity for the place you're going to go" he got our attention back and I think my jaw was close to dropping.

"Now, you and your team are to head to Arcturus shortly. You'll get further orders a few hours from now. The SSV Dresden is launching in three hours" he told us with a smile, he turned to leave and started to walk away.

"If I were you, I wouldn't want to miss that flight, your equipment will be waiting for you there" With that he disappeared in the crowd, leaving us bolted to our places, jaws on the floor.

For a few moments we just stared at the crowd where he disappeared, then we turned to each other and shared a victorious high five.

* * *

We managed to gather the others in record time and make our way to the Dresden, apparently we were expected and got onboard without a hitch. True to the Commander's word, the same equipment we've used before was waiting for us in the ship's armory.

The frigate launched on time and the crew went on with their daily routine. Since we weren't part of the crew, we were just hanging around the mess hall, talking, eating and occasionally making a jab at each other.

"Still, it's weird, we got selected for something because of our stunt?" commented Adrian from his seat, tray in front of him. We were sitting around a table, eating dinner, discussing our strange situation.

"Yeah, now what? They're going to make us N7s or something?" questioned Rodriguez, while playing with her food.

"Don't be ridiculous, only veterans can go to N school" Shepard chimed in as she ate her jello.

"Would be nice to know why we're sent to the capital on such a short notice" grunted Zhang, she was in a bit of a bad mood, since she was meeting with her boyfriend, who she hadn't met in months.

"All of us had a program not centered around the marines, Zhang" bit back Sheffield, he was meeting with her aunt, his only family member. His parents died in an outbreak of some sorts not long after he was born and his aunt took him in. From the times he spoke of her I got the impression that they were very close.

"I just hope it turns out go-" I started saying when I was interrupted by not only my, but the others' omni-tools.

*BEEP-BEEP*

We all looked down at our intruding screens and inspected them. It was a message, to me, curious, I opened it.

 _To: Corporal William Carter_

 _From: Human Systems Alliance Naval Department of Logistics_

 _Subject: Transfer orders_

 _Previous posting: 5th training center, Australia, Earth_

 _New posting: Alliance Special Forces Group, Team Delta_

 _Report deadline: November 7th 2172_

 _Posting time: Permanent until further notice_

I looked at my arm with wide eyes, my arm started shaking and my heartbeat skyrocketed for a few seconds. 'They want me in a spec ops team?' I trembled. 'I don't even know if I'm good enough for that' I thought 'No… brass tells me I'm good enough, my actions tell me I'm good enough, I think I'm good enough' I scolded myself, I stopped my arms from shaking and took a few breaths.

"Soo, I think brass wants me to play spec ops, but I need someone to confirm it" said Rodriguez, showing her omni-tool. We all looked up at this and our eyes were on her. Sheffield ran over the message and nodded.

"Pinch me, 'cause I see it as well, even to the same place as me" he said, voice a bit shaky. Everybody knew that if they send you to spec ops, they mean business.

"103rd Marine division?" questioned Adrian, eyes glued on his omni-tool.

"No, Alliance Engineering Corps, Spec Ops Team Zeta" he shook his head.

"The Bridge Burners?" I asked, remembering them as a war asset from ME3.

"Yeah, the same, although I have no idea why they would want us" Rodriguez confirmed and shook her head.

"Why wouldn't they want you? You and Sheffield are one of the best explosive experts I've ever met" I argued "Plus, you are the best tech person that I know of, and Sheffield is great commando material" I encouraged them. They still looked unsure, but let out a sigh and a "If you say so".

"What about you Zhang, where are they sending you?" Asked Adrian, looking at the small asian.

"Coming with you, big guy. 103rd Marine Division" she answered, her mood a bit better than before.

"So, I'm guessing I'll be alone in ASFG Team Delta?" inquired Shepard, looking around the table, her expression a bit sad.

"Nope, for my misery, I'll be there with you" I said with an exaggerated sigh. She huffed and leaned back in her chair.

"Poor you, you'll have to spend more time with me" she said with an even voice, crossing her arms, I rolled my eyes.

"I'll find a rope and a chair" I stated, taking a sip of water "That one minute of pain would worth it" I continued, motioning to the ceiling. Shepard was about to retaliate when Zhang cut her off.

"If you could stop bickering like an old married couple for a second, that'd be great" she got our attention "Do you know what this means?" she asked us, waving with her omni-tool. We frowned, trying to figure out what she meant.

"We're being split up" stated Adrian in a monotone voice, our eyes widened at this and we looked at each other in surprise.

"This is likely the last time we're together as a unit" picked up Rodriguez, voice somber and a faraway look on her face, we nodded our heads and sat in silence for a while.

"So, I guess this is goodbye" said Shepard, her sad expression returned and she started fidgeting with her hands, again, we just nodded and the silence continued. We got close in our time together and being split up hurt like a bitch, true, we're not saying goodbye to everyone and we'll likely meet again, but it won't be the same.

"Then let's ma-" I started saying but I was interrupted by the sound of warning klaxons going off. We were shaken out of our trance and got up fast as lightning, warning lights came online and bathed the mess hall in red lighting. A voice spoke up from the ship intercom.

"This is the Captain speaking, the colony world of Sordis is under attack by slavers. The Dresden and the rest of the 6th Fleet is now moving to intercept. All stations, prepare for combat, marines, suit up and get ready for boarding action" the captain's voice cut off and we rushed to the elevator. We technically weren't part of the marine detachment, but we sure as hell weren't going to sit this one out. As we piled into the elevator I spoke up

"It seems we're having one hell of a goodbye party"

* * *

Two hours later the Dresden managed to arrive with the rest of the fleet at the colony. We were a bit late, since we had caught a transmission saying that about 80% of the population was already on the ships in orbit. As soon as the pirate fleet detected our presence they had turned tail and ran like hell. It was by no means a large fleet, numbering maximum in the twenties, but they were fast, no dreadnoughts, just a few cruisers and frigates. This meant that our fleet couldn't catch them before they got to the other relay in system. To solve this problem the Dresden, with the other frigates in the fleet decided to go full thrust and slow them down. I, with the other 40 or so marines onboard, was waiting in the hangar bay, fiddling with our thumbs. The ship shook as the central spinal cannon fired, our commanding officer brought up a hand to his ear, after a few seconds he turned to address us.

"Listen up, lads, the Dresden managed to take out the engines on one of the cruisers, meaning it's dead in the water. Now comes our part, we go in with shuttles, rescue the civilians, download any useful intel they might have onboard and get the hell out of there, understood?" he told us with his british accent, we replied in various positive responses and made our way to the shuttles. Raptor squad took one shuttle and we made ourselves comfortable. We had mostly the same gear as before, just less explosives on Sheffield and Rodriguez, and I opted to leave my sniper rifle behind, since I wouldn't be able to put it to good use on a spaceship, instead I had a Paladin strapped to my thigh.

The shuttle ride was quiet, no sound in space and all, so I couldn't hear the battle that was undoubtedly happening outside and nobody said a word inside, preferring to make final preparations instead.

The silence was broken when our pilot yelled from the front

"Hang on to your seats, LZ is hot, we're coming in rough" he helpfully informed us. I strapped myself in with the seatbelt and waited. As we were about slow down and land in one of the hangar bays, a rocket slammed into the cockpit and destabilized the craft. The shuttle continued on its course and once we crossed the atmospheric shields it turned sideways. Gravity took over and we impacted the floor, rolling on our sides for a bit. We stopped rolling and instead turned upside down, but it didn't stop there, inertia carried us forwards and the shuttle skidded on the hangar floor until we hit the opposite wall and came to a dead halt. The impact almost managed to knock me out and I might have gotten a concussion.

"Everyone good?" asked Adrian in a hoarse voice, with a cough afterwards. I opened my eyes and shook my head, trying to come to my senses, my vision was a bit blurry.

"Ah, never better" groaned Shepard from next to me, I heard a thump and another groan from ahead.

"He wasn't exaggerating when he said it was going to be rough" complained Sheffield, I shook my head again and my vision cleared, I looked around the shuttle, only to realize that I was upside down, in fact, everything was upside down. I glanced down and saw that I was strapped into my seat 'Thank god for seatbelts' I thanked the universe. Without thinking I pressed the release button and my head was promptly introduced to the shuttle ceiling. I let out a groan and spoke up

"I've had worse" I replied truthfully, nothing beats a good old fashioned car crash, although I'd place this a close second, my body was aching all over and my head was ringing.

"Zhang? Rodriguez?" asked Shepard. We heard two distinct groans of affirmatives and I laid back on the ceiling, hoping it would ease the pain.

"We're all good" declared Shepard, she surrounded herself in a blue glow, released herself and she promptly dropped to the floor. She didn't seem fazed by it in the least and got up. She stumbled over to me and offered her hand

"Come on, we still have a job to do" she declared confidently, her posture like that of a leader. I looked at her and noticed a trickle of blood running down from her temple, with a few bruises accompanying it. I took her hand and she helped me to my feet, I was standing a bit shakily, but otherwise I was fine. It was at this moment when we noticed bullets ricocheting off of the outside plating. I collected myself and, with Shepard, I moved to assist the others. We helped them out of their seats and I moved to the door, Sheffield took the other side and we readied our weapons. We looked at each other and nodded, I closed my visor and punched the opening button.

We stormed outside and were faced with an interesting situation.

The hangar bay was in complete disarray, at the outer side were our guys and shuttles, firing at the defenders, who were in the inner parts, hiding behind crates and dropships. Tracers were flying everywhere and explosions erupted all over the place from grenades and exposed fuel cells. Everybody was so focused at the fight that they hadn't noticed the most important development.

Us.

We were at the rear wall, and had a perfect field of fire at the defenders' back. We got in cover behind a supply crate and I turned to Sheffield, a plan forming in my head. He looked at me with a wolfish grin, seemingly knowing what I was thinking about, and nodded. I turned on my radio and whispered under the gunfire

"Guys, come out quietly and take up firing positions" I said in to the comms, I received several clicks in response, the others came out the shuttle with their weapons raised and took up positions behind crates. Without saying a word we all took out various grenades and braced ourselves. I waited a moment and pulled the pin

"Now!" I yelled, I got out of cover and tossed the frag into a group of unlucky batarians, the others doing the same. We still weren't discovered as our grenades rolled on the floor.

*B-B-B-B-B-BANG*

The various grenades exploded at once, fire from biotic and frag to arc, causing devastating damage in the defenders' line. We brought up our weapons and started unloading on the slavers. They finally noticed us and started returning the favor, after a few seconds I was forced back into cover and reloaded. As I was about to come back up Sheffield pulled me down, just before a harpoon whizzed past where I would have been standing and planted itself in the side of our shuttle. I glanced at it, then at Sheffield and gave him a thumbs up, he nodded and we continued fighting.

After a few minutes, only a few of the defenders remained, courtesy of our intervention. Slowly, but surely the hangar was starting end up in our hands. I popped up from my cover and aimed at the head of a vorcha, who was stupid enough to get out of cover, as I was about to end its life a glowing disk hit me in the chest, knocking me back and taking out most of my shields. 'What?' I glanced down at the intruding object and realization hit me like an eighteen wheeler 'Shit' I simply stated as the Chakram launcher's disk exploded and sent me flying. I impacted the floor a couple of meters away and blacked out for a minute. A few moments later my vision returned and I let out a moan of pain, if my body wasn't aching before, it certainly was now. My ears were ringing like I took a flashbang to the face and my head felt like I just took it out of a blender.

A hand intruded my personal space and started clicking in front my face, me, in my dazed state, didn't realize what it was and continued inspecting the ceiling. The hand was trying for a while before giving up, another hand came into my field of vision and pain flared across my face. This got me to bolt upright into a sitting position, I glanced around only to see that the fighting was over, and the very amused faces of Shepard and Zhang.

I brought my hands up to my face and winced as I touched it, I turned to Shepard with a suspicious look.

"Did you just slap me?" I accused her with an incredulous expression. She just turned to Zhang with an innocent look.

"Did I?" she asked in a sing-song voice. Zhang started vigorously nodding her head with a grin on her face.

"Indeed, I believe you did" she confirmed, struggling not to laugh.

"I just took an explosive point-blank and you two are joking!?" I asked with a shocked expression 'were these two for real!?'

"Oh, relax, you're fine, your armor and shields took the brunt of it" Shepard reassured me with a roll of her eyes. I turned my gaze downwards and indeed, my vest was almost shredded, but I wasn't bleeding anywhere, granted that didn't mean I didn't have internal bleeding but I felt alright enough to rule out that possibility. I looked upwards again and was helped up by the combined efforts the two women. I felt something missing and was about ask Shepard, when my eyes caught sight of what I was missing.

"Ahh, hell" I complained as I walked towards the remains of my Valkyrie "Now I have to get another one" I picked the rifle up, or at least what was left of it 'Must've slipped out of my hands while flying'.

"Just pick up another weapon" suggested Zhang as she patted my back.

"These unmaintained pieces of shits?" I shook my head, discarded the unfunctional rifle and took out my Paladin. We walked towards the rest of the marine contingent and formed up.

"Thanks for the save" said our Lieutenant, while motioning teams towards different doors.

"Anytime, sir" Shepard replied while I asked a marine for his Avenger. He handed it to me and I inspected it 'Not a Harrier but it'll do for now' I mused when he finally turned to address us.

"Alright, here's the plan. We go in towards the storage compartments, that's the most likely place we'll find civilians" he motioned to a door across the hangar "We bring them back here and load them onto the shuttles" he continued "Now comes your part, you go towards the bridge and secure any useful intel you might find, locations, attack dates, names, anything that could help us, am I clear?" he concluded his monologue and we nodded.

"Aye aye, sir" replied Sheffield for us. With that we turned to a door that would lead us to the bridge and made our way there. Arriving, we stacked up to the locked door and Rodriguez took out a breaching charge.

* * *

The charge detonated and we stormed in, we were faced with a large, empty corridor. It was a bit dark and badly maintained, but it still functioned. Seeing nothing I called out.

"Clear!" I got a round of affirmatives and we turned to follow a red line on the floor, hoping it would lead us to the bridge. A few minutes had passed and we hadn't met any significant opposition, only a few vorcha and one turian. Needless to say, we dispatched them quickly and continued on our journey.

As we were about to reach another locked door the lights changed to red and warning klaxons started going off. We stopped and observed our surroundings.

"I have a bad feeling about this" stated Will as he searched for anything out of the ordinary. I activated the radio and contacted the other marines.

"It's Raptor squad, anyone knows what's happening? Over" I asked, maybe they knew what was going on.

"Hold on, Raptor squad, I'm contacting the Dresden for a scan, over" answered our CO's voice, the line was silent for a bit before he spoke up again, although his voice was far from calm.

"The Dresden's scans indicate a build up in the ship's reactor, it will go critical in the next couple of minutes, over" came his voice from the comms. Our eyes widened with realization.

"They activated the self-destruct" I stated, shocked that they would do this so soon.

"Precisely, now we are nowhere near finishing transporting the civvies and we wouldn't be able do it in time either" he said "Engineering is on the way towards the bridge and your squad is the closest one" he left the thought hanging.

"Understood, sir, we'll deal with it, Raptor squad over and out" I answered his unvoiced order and faced the others "I assume you've heard everything" at their nod I continued "Rodriguez, you're our tech expert, you shut down the self-destruct, Sheffield, escort her there" I ordered, turning to them, they said a "yes, ma'am" and started running along a yellow line, indicating the route towards engineering. If the resistance was anything alike to previous then two people should be enough.

"Okay, people, we still need to get to that bridge" I watched as they disappeared behind a corner and turned to the others. They said an "Aye-aye" and stacked up to the door. Adrian produced a breaching charge and placed it on the door, he activated the countdown and stepped away.

*BANG*

* * *

*Crack*

I removed the head of a batarian that thought that charging straight at us was a great idea. The shotgun blast took his head clean off and his body slumped to the floor, motionless. I got behind the door frame and hunkered back, shielding myself from the batarian's friends' return fire. On the other side of the frame was Adrian, he was pinned down up to this point but thanks to my intervention they focused fire on me. He took the opportunity and stepped out of cover and brought up his Revenant, he pressed the trigger and kept holding it. This created a wall of bullets that effectively suppressed the slavers, they got behind corners and overturned tables and didn't even dare to peek out. This short break allowed us to collect ourselves, it has been a good five minutes since we've heard from Sheffield and Rodriguez and the warning klaxons were still going off, if they didn't get there, we were as good as dead.

As if some higher power was listening, the klaxons stopped and the red lighting disappeared. We let out a collective sigh of relief, hoping it would be the end of our worries. I activated my radio and contacted the duo

"Sheffield, Rodriguez, it's Shepard. Judging from the fact that I still exist I take you have stopped the self-destruct?" I asked them, I didn't get a response for a few seconds and I started to get worried when Sheffield answered me

"Yep, sorry for not replying right away but we're kinda under fire at the moment" there was a break after that and I heard a shotgun going off "We're hold up in engineering, keeping the original owners from claiming it back" he added, continuing his line of thought.

"Can you keep them out or do you need assistance?" I asked, we couldn't lose that room and risk them reactivating the countdown.

"Nah, a few close calls here and there but we're doing fine. Just get to the bridge so we can get the hell out of here" he replied in his normal, sarcastic tone. I looked around me and to the others, we needed to get past this group somehow, problem was that we could only attack from this doorway, since they have sealed every other door leading to the elevator and they've made it so there weren't any objects we could use as cover, we could charge in and get a few dozen bullet holes as a reward. I peeked out of cover and glanced at our opponents, a few batarians, vorcha and a single salarian were pinned behind cover, waiting for a mistake they could take advantage of. I brought my head back and let out a sigh of defeat, we couldn't get past them, no matter what we did.

"Alright, I'm open to ideas here" I said, hoping the others had a plan of action. Everyone who wasn't firing seemed to be in thought when Will suddenly had an eureka expression plastered on his face and I swear I could see a light bulb appear over his head.

"Got one. Zhang, I'll need your help with this" He said, turning on his heels and running down the corridor, without question Zhang got up and ran after him.

"Will, what the hell are you doing?!" I hollered, he just kept running and glanced back before disappearing behind a corner.

"Thinking outside the box" He shouted, I cursed internally, that man could be more cryptic than an enigma at times.

Seeing no other option I joined Adrian and started pumping lead down the hall. About a minute and a few dead pirates later I heard a familiar voice speaking through the radio.

"Going to spook them a little, get ready" said Will over the comm. I had no idea what he meant but I reloaded and prepared for… something.

*BOOM*

The breaching charge detonated and created a hole large enough to walk through on the right wall of the hall.

Just behind the enemy's line of cover.

Before the dust has even settled a continuous stream of bullets started pouring through the opening, several hitting the flanked pirates. The remaining pirates somewhat wised up and were in the process of changing cover when me and Adrian added our guns to the fray. Needless to say, we made short work of the disorganized, flanked and somewhat disoriented enemies until only one batarian remained standing, or rather hiding behind column. The way he was positioned meant that only me and Adrian could see him, but he was doing a good job of hiding and we couldn't get a clear shot on him. We stopped firing for a moment and just waited.

Our wait was worth it since the idiot shuffled behind his cover and in the process managed to expose one of his feet. Adrian and I looked at each other and nodded. He brought his LMG up and fired a single shot.

The round hit its mark and the batarian collapsed onto the floor, screaming and clutching his leg. Now exposed, Adrian fired once more and his skull had two more holes in it. A strange calm descended onto the hall as I observed it, the dust had finally settled, letting me get a good look at it.

All the tables were overturned, with food and drinks spilled on the floor 'Strange, must've been in the middle of eating' I mused as my gaze continued onwards. There were scorch marks on a few surfaces, traces of explosives used, one such mark had a body right next to it, it was bloody and its legs were missing.

You didn't need to look for them for long.

Blood was covering a good portion of the whole room, dripping from the walls and in pools around bodies. But that wasn't all, there was a certain smell present, eezo. Unlike archaic firearms that used gunpowder, modern weapons used eezo and electromagnets, but technology didn't get rid of the smell. Small amounts of eezo still left the gun barrel and had quite the smell. People from the past associated death with the smell of gunpowder, modern people do it with eezo. The blood and the smell in the room seemed to send one message.

"Death" I whispered as I tried to step forwards only to kick away a bottle. It rolled a couple of feet then stopped, label facing me. 'Thessian Red' I read and after a second realization hit me 'They were celebrating when we busted in' I made the connections.

'We gunned down people who were enjoying a meal and celebrating'

"Room clear" yelled Adrian as he advanced further into the room, this got me out of my trance and I shook my head.

Two forms stepped through the hole and we grouped up in the middle of the hall.

"Hope you liked our entrance" Smirked Will as he reloaded his pistol.

"Next time when you 'think outside the box' please tell me in advance what you will blow up" I said with finger quotes and an amused expression. He brought his hands up in a placating manner

"Hey, if it gets the job done" he defended himself "Anyways, can we get a move on? I hate this ship more and more by the second" he said, looking around at the destruction surrounding us, all four of us nodded and we proceeded towards the corridor that would lead to the elevator.

We were halfway there and I could see the elevator when all of the doors started to open. We brought our weapons up and scanned the hallway, there was not a soul in sight and only the sound of doors opening in the distance could be heard.

"Now they open themselves" muttered Zhang as we slowly advanced forwards. The silence was broken by the warning klaxons and emergency lights coming online again.

"Oh, for crying out loud!" exclaimed Will in an annoyed tone "What is it this time?" he continued with a frustrated expression. I frowned and brought my hand up to my ear

"Rodriguez, it's Shepard. Is the self-destruct on again?" I asked. I didn't know what would be worse; the self-destruct or something else entirely.

"Rodriguez here, main reactor is still offline, so no, it's not that" answered the Brazilian girl. My frown only deepened at this, what the hell was going on?

"Then why is the corridor swimming in red right now?" I demanded an answer, alarms usually don't go off by themselves.

"I don't know! All I can see from here is that all the doors from your position to the hangar bays are opening by themselves" came her frantic reply. I let out a sigh and started thinking.

'Okay, every door in this godforsaken ship is opening, right up until the hangars, alarms are going off and no one is in sight' I pondered over this problem, walking up and down a bit while the others were on their guards for anyone. After a bit I started hearing a whistling sound coming from where we came, then as if a maglev had hit me at Mach 1, the solution came to me and I turned to face the others

"Oh, for fuck's sake, hold onto something!" I cursed and charged my fist with dark energy. Will seemed to realize what was happening and his eyes widened, Adrian and Zhang just looked at me with confused expressions. Then the whistling became louder and louder by the second and Will collected himself, he brought out one of his knives, held it in an icicle grip and stabbed the right wall with it. I focused my biotics and swung at the floor. The impact shattered the floor beneath the punch and my fist got imbedded in it. The other two came to their senses and started looking for something to hold onto.

It was too late.

The whistling became thunder and the wind blew past us as the ship vented its atmosphere, Zhang and Adrian were blown off their feet and were sent flying towards the airlocks towards the hangar. 'Oh hell no' I thought as I concentrated on them, my other fist became charged as well and I pointed it towards them. They stopped in place and were levitating motionlessly, they were saved, but not for long, holding onto a person was tiring, holding onto two people was exhausting.

"Rodriguez, would you kindly close the doors?!" that was Will, he was holding onto his knife with two hands, struggling to maintain his grip.

"On it" came the simple reply from her, but even the deaf could have heard the urgency in her voice.

Several seconds passed, the wind seemed to become stronger and stronger or maybe I was getting weaker and weaker. Will was doing okay for the most part from what I could tell, although that didn't mean much in this situation, someone could be fine at one moment and then dead at the other. I on the other hand was going through hell, my whole body ached, I could feel my muscles slowly tearing themselves apart, I could see blood coming from my embedded hand and I could hear the bones cracking in it one-by-one, but I held on, with gritted teeth I held on, they weren't going to take away my friends **again** , I was going to make sure of that.

Time didn't stop despite my heroics and I was way past my stress limit, my vision started to blur, the edges started to turn dark and I could feel Zhang and Adrian slipping from my biotic grip. Slowly I closed my eyes and only silence remained, no wind, no voices, just silence.

"Wooooahh" A feminine scream woke me up and I felt something missing, I faced my two brothers in arms, only to see one in place and the other flying down the corridor

"Zhang!" I called out, I could do nothing else, I was close to blacking out and I could only watch helplessly as she get farther and farther away.

* * *

I brought my legs under me and my left hand reached for my other knife. I braced myself and waited for the perfect opportunity. And when it came I took it. I pushed myself away from the wall and flew towards the other side. Me and Zhang collided midair and my momentum sent us crashing into the left wall, at the last moment I brought out my knife and pointed it at the wall, the knife's blade sunk into it and with my other hand I kept Zhang close. We skidded about half a meter before we came to a screeching halt as friction finally did its job.

"Gotcha" I said over the wind, she gave a weak "Thanks" and I contacted Rodriguez again

"Anytime now, Rodriguez!" I said as a not so subtle hint to hurry the fuck up, I was holding on with only one hand and I didn't know how long I could do it.

"Almost there…. done" she declared in a victorious tone, I could actually imagine her fistpumping. True to her word the wind stopped and all the doors suddenly sealed themselves, this was nice and all but the lack of airflow meant that we dropped to the floor like bricks.

"Ahhh, Remind me to never go on a ship ever again" groaned Zhang as she shakily stood up, me and Adrian gave a grunt of agreement and got on our feet as well. I waited for everyone to collect themselves as we were stumbling around for the most part but Shepard caught my attention. She was in a sitting position, looking at her hand with a pained expression. I followed her gaze and flinched. Her right hand was covered in blood and I swear I saw a bone protruding out of her hand.

I went up to her and crouched next to her

"You okay?" I asked, I know, idiotic question, but it was mostly just to get her attention. She looked away from her hand and to me

"Never better, just need some medigel and I'm good to go" she stated in a 'I know what you're thinking and I don't give a crap' voice. I frowned and motioned Zhang to come over and treat her.

I glanced at her hand and quickly decided that she wasn't combat capable in almost any way, but I knew that telling her that would be like arguing with a brick wall, so I offered a compromise.

"We can't send you back right now, especially not alone, so do me a favor and stick to the back" I told her in a somewhat kind manner as Zhang sprayed the magic foam on her hand.

She looked like she was about to argue even against that but she let out a muffled cry of pain, courtesy of the bandage that Zhang was rolling around her hand just to keep that mess together, so she just gave a weak "Fine" and stood up with help from the both of us. We turned towards the end of the corridor and the elevator that we've tried to reach the whole time we've been on this ship. Shepard took out her N7 Eagle and moved to the back of our formation.

All four of us went into the elevator and I punched the button for the second highest level, most probably the bridge, by what I know of ME ship designs, which admittedly wasn't much. The others didn't voice any objections so the doors closed and we ascended several floors in the bowels of the ship.

* * *

'Okay Kyra, you're doing fine, just one more stop and you can get out of this godforsaken ship and seek more appropriate medical attention than a few bandages and medigel' I winced as the elevator came to a halt and the doors opened

To a bridge full of armed individuals.

"Watch out!" I yelled as I rushed to the front of the group all the while focusing dark energy to my still functioning hand. I arrived just in time to erect the biotic barrier as a hail of tungsten pellets started peppering it.

"Got any ideas?" I asked as I struggled to hold the literal wall of bullets coming at us.

"Yes, could you charge like the last time?" inquired Will as him and the others braced themselves for something.

"Yes, but I will be probably spent for a good while" I complained through gritted teeth.

"No choice, on my mark, charge" He declared and put a hand on my shoulder and indicated the others to do the same. When everyone's hands were on my shoulders a member of the bridge crew had the excellent idea of throwing a fragmentation grenade .

It flew a bit and landed a few meters away from us, but it kept on rolling until it reached the barrier.

"Now!" Shouted Will and I dropped the barrier and focused behind a panel behind most of the enemies. My vision narrowed until I only saw where I wanted to end up and I could feel my biotics activating in every section of my body.

What seemed like an eternity for me was a split second to the outside world, so when the space-warping miniature FTL drive that I created formed and the grenade went off, we didn't feel anything and just passed right through the explosion at hypersonic speeds. A hundredth of a second later we emerged on the other side of the room, the others standing, me rapidly nearing the floor, face first.

* * *

As soon as we exited the warp me and the others took cover behind a few panels and work stations and waited.

"Are they dead?" Hollered someone from the bridge crew.

"Don't be an idiot" Someone else scolded him "People don't just evaporate from a grenade. They must have cloaks, keep an eye out!" He ordered the others. 'Shit' I thought 'a competent adversary, that's not something you see everyday' I half thanked the universe, half cursed it 'Too bad he's going to die' I shook my head and popped out of cover, Avenger in hand, and sent a five round burst clear though his nape, the others doing likewise with other crewmembers.

'3 down, 7 more to go' I mused as they got to their senses and changed cover to face us. There was only one problem with this situation: 7 rifles versus 3 meant that once they started firing back we were absolutely suppressed.

'At least they aren't shooting Shepard' I thanked the Lord, probably because they thought she was dead. Well, they were wrong but it was true that she wasn't combat capable with her amp overloading and all, again.

I become more and more distressed more and more as time went on, since they were getting closer and closer, with us sparsely returning fire barely slowing them down. Then an idea hit me, I peeked over my workstation and noticed that none of them were wearing any headgear. I went back when a burst connected with my shields, bringing them down to forty percent. I searched my vest for a particularly useful item and after a few moments it was in my hands. I glanced at the others, seeing that they didn't have any helmets on whatsoever.

'Meh, I'm sure they won't mind'

I pulled the pin on the flashbang and cooked it for about two seconds before throwing it up in a perfect vertical line.

*BANG*

The magnesium inside reacted violently and the world became white and the only thing one could hear was a ringing noise in their ears.

Not for me, though. The visor compensated for the increased brightness and promptly polarized itself enough for me to not notice a thing and the receptors in my ear piece reacted to sudden increase in decibels simply by muting everything around me.

The others in the bridge weren't so fortunate and were rolling on the floor holding their heads that were about explode.

Literally.

I stood from my cover and simply walked to every enemy in the room except one, which I assumed to be the XO, and put a bullet into their heads. When I saw that he was about to recover I introduced him to sole of my boot, which knocked him out cold. After that I waited for the others to regain their body-eye-coordination.

"Carter" Called Zhang.

"Yes?"

"Once I'm able to stand without vomiting out my lungs, you're dead" stated Zhang from behind a workstation.

"Get in line" Grunted Adrian from somewhere else. This just made me smirk.

"You're welcome, for saving both of your asses" I simply said, laying back in the captain's chair, speaking of which.

"By the way, did anyone of you see the captain? We should capture him for interrogation" I asked.

"Negative, he must've escaped before we stormed the room" Said Adrian, finally managing to stand up and stumbling over to Zhang.

"You're probably right. I'll update the LT" I stood up and contacted the others.

"This is Raptor squad, all objectives complete and we have captured one pirate for further questioning, over" I reported.

"Understood Raptor squad, any other sources of intel? Over" came the voice of our Lieutenant.

"One second, over" I moved back to the captain's console and searched for anything useful, to my dismay I had found nothing.

"Negative, looks like the databanks were wiped, over" I informed him, when an idea formed in my head "I will check the captain's quarters for further information, over"

"Roger that, we're done loading up civvies and are evacuating right now. A shuttle will dock at the forward airlock right at the bridge and will wait for you there, over" His raspy voice told me.

"Acknowledged, Raptor squad over and out" I ended the transmission and turned towards Adrian, who had managed to help Zhang up from the floor.

"Zhang, when you're able, take a look at Shepard, her amp had probably overloaded again. Adrian, keep watch, I'll go up a level and look for a few things" I told them the situation.

"Affirmative" "Will do" came their responses and I made for the elevator, once getting inside I pushed the button for the uppermost floor, a disapproving beep told me that floor was only accessible for the XO and CO of the ship and that I had to give a code. 'Fuck that' I thought and simply walked towards the escape hatch, opened it and climbed outside.

* * *

(A/N: you can start the music here, if you'd like to)

I grunted heavily as I opened the door to the upper floor, done with that I stepped through and brought up my Avenger. I scanned the rather large room before me. There were four rather wide columns leading into the room, to the left was a king sized bed with trophies of what seemed like alien animals above it, on the right were a few couches and a TV. Directly in front of me at the opposite wall was a large terminal, my objective, there was only one problem with this situation.

"Step away from the console and put your hands where I can see them!" I ordered the figure standing at the terminal. His hands froze and he slowly turned to face me. Once he fully turned I could make a few details out, first of all he was a human and he looked to be in his fifties, although it was hard to tell with the increased lifespan of humans and such, secondly, he did not seem armed, so I closed in the distance with my weapon lowered. He most likely wasn't a slaver, since he was a human.

"You're the cavalry?" he asked, his voice carried a bit of Italian, but I wasn't sure.

"Yeah, I presume since you're human, you're an escaped colonist?" I inquired when I reached him, he vigorously nodded and motioned to the terminal.

"Yes, yes, I escaped when the chaos started and I was searching for clues that might help the Alliance tracking down these bastards" He then showed me what he had found.

"There is a treasure trove of information here, bases, attack plans, fleet numbers, everything" He listed and I began to inspect the list.

"I see, Command will be jumping in joy." I declared and I got an idea.

I closed the file and the man was about to protest when another file got my attention.

"Unity?" This file was much larger and it looked extremely encrypted to say the least.

"Do you hav-" I gasped when I felt a burning sensation right in my ribs.

"Sorry kid, but you were a bit too nosy" said the man, hosting my paladin and aiming at my side. I collapsed on my knees "If you were to simply leave the other file alone this wouldn't have happened" The 'captain' continued, he worked at the terminal for a moment, probably to erase any evidence. Once he was finished, he put the Paladin against my visor and slowly pulled the trigger.

"For what it's worth, I didn't mean any of this" he said, then the firing mechanism activated.

*Crack-Crack*

The pellets travelled through the air in less than a second and impacted the visor. Fortunately, chemistry was on my side and the palladium-glass alloy proved hard enough to completely deflect the rounds with only tiny cracks forming in the process.

Of course that didn't mean that inertia wasn't carried over and I didn't fell to the floor like a sack of potatoes.

"Nice visor, but it won't help you this time" He said in a menacing tone and lowered the pistol so it was pointing at my chest.

He pulled the trigger once more, but instead of a crack, a hissing sound could be heard as the weapon ejected the spent thermal clip onto the floor, leaving the man confused for a moment.

"Count your bullets, you fucker" I said and raised my Avenger up. I was a too little too late when he kicked the weapon out of my hands and I could hear it skitter on the floor. He stepped on my side wound and I let out a cry of pain.

"How could you betray your own kind, you sick fuck?!" I shouted at the man towering above me, he snarled at this.

"I'm no traitor, I'm a goddamn savior" He took out a rather large knife and held it in an icicle grip.

"You're enslaving humans and sell them to the highest bidder! How can you justify that?!" Me too, looking for my boot knife.

"You have no idea what you're talking about" He said, pointing the knife at me "It's about ideals, we're protecting humanity for god's sake!" He shouted, some of his spit landing on my visor.

"What the hell are you talking about?! Your raid alone killed hundreds!" I accused the 'pirate' leader, my hand now firmly gripping my boot knife.

"To save millions!" I was taken aback by this "Have you noticed how the number of incursions have more than quadrupled in the last two years?!" He continued "And have you failed to notice how defenseless our colonies are! No fleets garrisoned at eighty percent of the colonies and your relief fleet arrived a dozen and a half hours later than it should have!" My mouth was hanging while the captain continued his monologue.

"We're just pointing out the biggest threat and hope that the people notice!" He looked really emotional at this point so I kept him talking.

"What danger? The batarians? The Turians?"

"No! The danger comes from inside! Why do you think we can't even defend our territory, Horizon, Noveria, Freedom's Progress! They are all leaving the Alliance! They know what will happen soon and it will be much worse than even the darkest hour of The Great War!" He ranted like a madman "At least you won't have to witness the destruction, my friend" He said after he calmed down and prepared to plant the knife into my throat.

I chose this moment to strike and stabbed my knife into his right arm. My reward was a cry of pain and a loss of grip from his part. I took the knife out of his hand and rolled away.

I stood up just as he did and we stood ready for any moves the other would try, with him unsheathing another blade and with me trying to ignore my wound.

He tried to swing his knife at me, but I kicked his hand, this seemingly didn't surprise him and he went with the blow, doing a 360 and coming in again, this time going for a stab at my left shoulder.

I managed to parry his knife just in time, which gave me about half a second to recollect myself before another strike came and I was forced to back away slightly.

I wasn't lucky enough and he extended the motion into another stab that I caught with my armpit and headbutted him in response, we backed away a bit, getting ourselves some breathing room.

A moment later I closed in the distance and tried to stab him in his left shoulder. He blocked it easily and I tried to put him off balance with my other hand, but he was quicker and pushed it away towards our other arms and interlocked them together.

When I freed my hands and tried to get another strike in, he thrust his knife into my right shoulder and I backed away, hissing in pain.

'I must take him down soon' I thought in pain. I couldn't afford to waste time until I bled out, I had to finish this fight, one way or the other.

I didn't have time to think as he attacked me once more, a simple try at stabbing me in my right lung, fortunately I brought my right arm up, grabbed his wrist and pulled it away in time. In a swift counter I brought my left hand up and tried to stab him. He could barely block it and maintain the deadlock until I started to turn our arms clockwise, He used this as an opportunity to lash at my throat. I let go of his other hand and blocked him at the wrist, bringing our hands slightly above shoulder level. I added my knifed hand into the fray as well and we ended up hands interlocked and blades clashing.

Due to the knife in his right arm, he couldn't bring as much force to bear as he could have and I won the duel. I knocked his knife out of his hand with my blade and broke up our little clash.

I swung at the now disarmed man, it didn't connect but he was forced to back away, I did it again with the same results, for the third time I went for a stab aimed directly at his heart. He defiantly blocked my arm and looked me in the eye, a maniac grin forming on his face.

This was it, now or never.

Time slowed down to a crawl and I could see everything clearly.

I released my grip on the knife and observed how it slid out of my right hand.

Right into my left hand.

I caught the blade midair and in one swift motion thrust it into his stomach, again, again, again and again until I left it in there, tore out the one in his right arm and stabbed him in the heart.

His face was frozen in horror and surprise, but somehow he was still alive, at least I thought he was. I watched as his eyes dwelled up with tears and franticly looking at different parts of my face before coming to a dead stop eye to eye. Then suddenly as if somehow I was able to sense it he was gone. His muscles gave up and he collapsed in place, he laid on the floor, unmoving.

I just stood there, looking at the corpse, thinking what had just transpired.

I just killed someone… saw their final death throws… that man probably had a family…. friends…. He truly believed in something and fought for it with all his willpower…. he said he only wanted good… I just saw a man's soul leaving his body….

And I enjoyed every second of it…

 **End of arc One**

* * *

Anything unclear will be explained in further chapters.


	8. Chapter 8

Hello there, I'm The Lord Protector and you're reading the 8th chapter of Mirror Images. This chapter is a bit slower placed with more world building, character interaction and development. It's shorter than the previous two but still adequate I think (~5000 words).

TheRangerBoy: I greatly appreciate your enthusiasm, but I can only chum out these so fast, while maintaining some level of polish ;)

Toothless is best: Alive and kicking :)

dekuton: You've got quite the eye to catch these things haha, anyway I saw it in Far Cry 3 when we killed Vaas.

jthelyric: My problem is quite the opposite actually, when I try to write in third person somehow I get detached from the story. I'm glad that my story actually helped someone, that was rather unexpected but not unwelcome.

Rowan Ren: No, he isn't, there won't be such a thing as the butcher, although Torfan will play a major part of the story, and galactic history ;)

"speech"

'thoughts'

*sounds, gunfire, etc.*

(notes, addendums)

(A/N: Authors Note)

Disclaimer: The Mass Effect franchise is **not** mine, only things I own are my OCs.

* * *

 **Arc 2**

 **Sub-Arc 1: Death in a Vial**

 **Chapter 8: Band of Brothers**

"After my encounter with the captain and finding no trace of that file named Unity, I downloaded the other one and joined up with my team. We left with the escape shuttle then watched as the Dresden fired one last time, the projectile slicing through the spine of the ship, leaving it to drift in the abyss for an eternity" I finished up with my story, at that point I was sitting against the glass, back against it with the reporter situated likewise.

"Wow" was his only response, I chuckled.

"Took the word right out of my mouth"

"What was the pirate talking about? An internal threat?" He asked in a curious tone.

"Nothing you should worry about, most likely it's gone, if not, you couldn't do anything against it, no one could" I exposed as much of the open secret as possible, it was a half lie and he probably knew that, just not which part of my statement was true. I couldn't see his face, but I guessed he was frowning.

"Alright" He muttered "What about the other part? With the number of increased raids?" He questioned further.

"Blame Shastri, that's what I do at least" He was probably irritated with me not telling him everything judging from the silent treatment I received so I decided to throw him a bone.

"Alright, I'll tell you about it later, satisfied?" I asked, as if a fog has been lifted from us, the mood has changed for the better drastically.

"Yes, I'm here to uncover the truth, Carter" He told me "I know that parliament is hiding something from the public" He explained further "And I want to uncover it" He finished his line of thought with a determined attitude that could rival that of a politician's.

"You're not going to wait all those years, are you?" I half questioned, half declared with a smile on my face. This time he chuckled.

"Of course I won't, the people deserve to know the truth" He told me confidently.

"The powder keg never disappoints" I shook my head and sighed and then a thought occurred to me.

'A spark is all that is needed to set the dried gunpowder ablaze'

I snorted and thought 'why the hell not? It might even turn out better this way'

"Well, who am I to say no to the people, whom I swore to protect and serve?" I told him in a sing-song voice.

This time Brody actually laughed out loud, no doubt catching my drift.

"You know that what I'm about to tell you is mostly classified on the highest levels and what will happen after?" I gave him a final chance to back out before anyone got burnt, but he just waved it away.

"Yes, me getting capital punishment for treason, if they get me" He added the last part with a low chuckle.

I shook my head again as I thought just how crazy this guy is.

"Uhm, let me see… Do you know about my team?" I asked him, so I could continue from somewhere.

"Not much, almost everything about you is classified" He shrugged.

"Then we continue where we left off" I answered simply, happy for not needing to jump in time whenever I wanted to explain something "It happened right after anyway….

* * *

"Compared to the rest of the planet, this place is like the Sistine Chapel" Commented Shepard, duffel bag over her shoulder, as we entered the pub where we were supposed to meet our team. After the slaver ship fiasco we said our goodbyes and departed wherever command assigned us.

Our CO, one Major David Young had messaged us when we arrived on Arcturus to go to a planet named Jaffata in the Omega Cluster. Yes, you heard that right, he sent us to the heart of the Terminus, a spitting distance away from Omega.

After reading that part we weren't surprised when he asked us **not** towear military gear and that we go by a civilian transport. Needles to say we complied, due to our little thing called 'self-preservation instinct'.

Anyway, after that he asked us to go to a pub named Yate. So far, not much happened, no one trying to mug us, kill us, take our souls, convert us to a random religion, thank god, it was enough when a hanar tried that with us back on Arcturus.

As for the planet itself, it wasn't that bad, but it wasn't outstanding. Back in the day, when it was founded by mostly salarian and asari colonists everything was bright as the midday sun, then shit happened.

First contact was made with the Rachni and war broke out. About a third of the colony was drafted into service to fight on the frontlines and the rest was forced to sit back and pretty much pray that a fleet wouldn't pop up and bombard the surface into glass.

After the war ended with the death of about the quarter of the population, peace returned for a few hundred years. However the inhabitants couldn't rest, since the Rebellions started and once again, a large portion of the population was drafted in, and never seen home after.

With the end of the Rebellions at the hands of the turians and the Genophage came a new era of peace and prosperity.

But the residents knew better.

Tired of being a puppet that could be sent to death in galactic politics, Jaffata declared independence and cut ties with the council. The turians didn't care, since it wasn't their colony and it wasn't that important strategically. The asari couldn't do anything even if they wanted to, the decision was made via referendum and the matriarchs couldn't afford to reign in a legally separated colony, it would have been political suicide in an e-democracy. The salarians were quiet about the whole thing, doing like nothing happened and stood on the sidelines with the rest of the council.

A decision that later cost them about thirty eight percent of the known galaxy.

Seeing the example of Jaffata, a number of colonies decided on the same course of route and systematically declared their sovereignty, thus creating what is known in this day and age as the Terminus systems.

Overtime more species were discovered, the vorcha, quarians and later geth, expanding the boundaries of the region.

Things were looking up for the Jaffatans as their fame attracted many settlers and businesses. The economy boomed and for hundreds of years the planet was the political, economic and most say military center of the Terminus.

But as we know, nothing lasts forever. Entropy is a bitch, so is galactic politics some say. More than half a dozen centuries ago a giant space rock had been discovered.

With the galaxy's biggest deposit of element zero, not surpassed ever since its discovery.

A krogan, today known as Patriarch, seized the asteroid and started mining the stuff. A few hundred years later the balance of power slowly shifted to the giant pebble, and with Aria's takeover it cemented its position as the heart of the Terminus.

Nowadays Jaffata 'only' has 234.7 million inhabitants as of the population census of 2170. The planet has become a rundown secondary power in the area it occupies and hasn't been able to recover ever since.

I looked around the interior of the pub and had to give some truth to Shepard's statement, compared to the outside, this place was a breath of fresh air, a sense of normalcy in the wilderness that is the Terminus.

The room was quite spacious, with a semi-high ceiling and a pleasant atmosphere that could be observed in any quality bar worth its name. There were no windows, only ceiling and wall lamps providing somewhat adequate lighting to the pub. In the middle f the room was the bar-island in a square shape. It was quite elegant as well, with a marble counter and black leather barstools. Boxes lined the walls, there weren't that many people here, so they were mostly empty.

"Get us a box and I'll fix some drinks" I handed my duffel bag to her, she nodded and took it. I made my way to the bar, the wooden floor creaking with a barely audible sound.

"Welcome to Yate, what can I get you?" greeted a particularly old looking salarian from behind the counter, eyes wide and shining at the prospect of a new patron.

"Do you have any human drinks? Beer if possible" I said, I haven't yet tasted any alien food or drink and I didn't really feel adventurous that day. The salarian nodded and disappeared behind the counter. A few moments later he came back up with beer in hand and put it on the counter in front of me. When I was about to pay he held up his hands in a placating manner.

"No need, Mr. Carter, You and your squad can order anything free of charge" He explained and I almost waved it off when I noticed something.

"How do you know my name?" I asked cautiously, a hand slowly creeping towards my concealed pistol.

"Oh, apologies" He apologized "Navil Firka, Lieutenant Colonel of the Special Tasks Group" He explained like it was no big deal, he took a glass in his hand and started to clean it.

"What?" I said, flabbergasted at the prospect of him admitting that so easily.

He looked confused before he seemingly realized something.

"Ah, Young hasn't told you yet?" He inquired, I shook my head, still suspicious but not as much as before.

"Told me what?" Navil sighed began explaining.

"I'm an undercover agent and liaison with the black market at the same time" He shrugged "Me and Young are working together most of the time" He explained, putting down the clean glass and reaching for another.

"Met years ago. Neither of us had sufficient resources to accomplish our goals, so we took up partnership" He stopped talking for a bit before continuing his monologue.

"What you see here is the fruit of our work, a source of additional funds, connection with the black market and much more" He told me, gesturing around.

"And what does the STG and the ASF think about this?" I asked, taking a sip from my beer.

"They don't know about it, and that's for the better" He simply waved away my concern "We live in a kind of symbiosis, we share the profits and expenses and if any one of us needs intel, we tap into our respective channels and work together" He explained.

"Isn't that treason, selling out state secrets?" I questioned, he briskly nodded.

"Of course, but operations more efficient this way and how's the human saying? What they don't know about, doesn't hurt them?" He asked with an unsure expression.

"Yeah, something like that. Anyway I'll have another four beers" I wrapped up our conversation, Navil once again disappeared behind the counter and took out my order, although this time he took out a plate as well 'huh, kind of him, it will be a lot easier this way' he put the beers on the plate and said a quick "Cheers" I nodded my thanks and took off to find Shepard.

I stood up to see Shepard waving her hand to catch my attention at one of the boxes. I started walking towards her when a wave of dizziness hit me from nowhere. I barely caught myself and the drinks and straightened myself.

I closed my eyes and put a hand on my temple as I felt the veins there throbbing. 'What the hell?' I thought, my head felt like it was upside down in a shredder. With great difficulty I opened my eyes and I swear I saw something in the corner of my eye, but when I looked there I found nothing, just empty seats. I shook my head and collected myself.

'Probably the air pressure playing havoc with my senses' I tried to make sense of the situation. I arrived at our box to see that Shepard wasn't alone, a blonde woman, probably barely twenty if I had to guess, sat across from her.

"You're alright there Will?" Asked Shepard with concern evident in her voice, she probably saw what had happened.

"Yeah, just a headache" I explained and put the plate down on the table. The blonde took one bottle and introduced herself.

"Lieutenant Yvonne Mercier" She held up her bottle, without hesitation I did the same.

"Corporal William Carter" I introduced myself, we clanged our bottles together and took a sip. Even while drinking I could make out her features, call me observant if you'd like. She had a bit pale skin, but you could see small amounts of tan if you looked close enough, definitely not a spacer then. Her hair was honey blonde that went slightly lower than her shoulders. Her azure blue eyes had a low glow to them, although I couldn't see any cybernetics, so she genetically engineered, she looked normal so maybe it was just cosmetic, I had no idea to be honest. Her nose was small and slim, running down her perfectly normal face 'No scars, that means she's new or really good at her job' I mused. Her lips bear no mark of lipstick and I couldn't see makeup on her face. 'A professional, should be interesting' I noted to myself. I couldn't see her frame very well, but she wore civilian clothing like we did so she got the same message as we did.

I finished drinking and Shepard moved inwards, giving me space to sit down.

"Was I interrupting anything?" I asked as I sat down, Shepard spoke up.

"We were just talking about what kind of specialists we were" She shrugged, she too, taking a bottle.

"I've heard you were trained on Earth, even though you are both colonists?" She inquired with a raised eyebrow, Shepard and I looked at each other with unsure eyes.

"She's from Mindoir and I'm from Tyrole" I explained, she didn't seem to get it but after a moment her eyes widened in realization.

"Oh, I'm so sorry, I sh-" She apologized but I just waved her away.

"No problem, we get that a lot, we're immune to it mostly" I interjected. Yeah, it was unsurprisingly easy for me to say that.

At this point a man appeared at our table, at first glance he was normal with civilian clothing on, duffel bag over his shoulder and he seemed to be our age, but his arms seemed unnaturally… black to be human. The man smiled at us.

"Captain Vito Santorini" he shook our hands and Mercier moved a bit to the side so he could sit down with us. We introduced ourselves and he took a beer as well.

An uncomfortable silence descended down on us until I broke it, rather bluntly.

"So what's with the arm?" 'What the hell did I just say? that was a bit insensitive' I frowned. He took it like it was an everyday occurrence.

"Oh this?" he asked, indicating his arms, all of us nodded, apparently the others were curious as well "Cybernetic prosthetics, I have all my limbs replaced with them" He explained with a smile, although one could see a bit of pain in that expression if he was observant enough.

I decided to let the matter drop, sensing it was a sensitive subject. Undoubtedly another silence would have followed if not for Shepard speaking up.

"So Mercier, what kind of training did you receive?" She asked, eyes on the blonde.

"Please, it's just Yvonne, and I'm a Vanguard" She told us with apparent pride. We nodded and asked further.

"Any feats you're proud of?" Vito asked with an audible accent. Surprisingly she beamed at us.

"I can do this" She declared proudly before a dark blue field of biotics surrounded her and she disappeared in a millisecond. We looked around frantically only to see her at the bar, ordering another round of drinks. A few moments later a familiar shroud enveloped her and she reappeared on her previous spot, drinks in hand.

"You can teleport?" I half asked, half declared as she slid me another bottle.

"I can use artificial wormholes to rip space-time a new one and teleport a short distance" She chuckled.

"Anything else outstanding?" Asked Shepard, amusement clear in her voice.

"Apart from all basic biotic abilities I have my own fighting style" She smiled and I could swear her attitude started rubbing off on us. She searched for something in her bag for a few seconds before popping back up.

With a fricking sword.

"You use a… sword?" Vito questioned, flabbergasted that someone in this day and age would use something this… archaic.

"Of course" She answered nonchalantly "But it isn't an ordinary sword" she hoisted the long weapon "It was my grandfathers, forged at the start of The Great War" She continued "Seen through 150 years without any mark for it" She declared proudly

"Still, it's just a sword… no offense" Placated Shepard but I noticed something about the one meter long meat chopper.

"It seems awfully sharp" I commented, Yvonne smiled at me.

"One of the first monomolecular blades, made out of Trinium" Vito nodded but me and Shepard were lost in the dark as to what trinium was. Seeing our confused looks she explained.

"Trinium, the holy trinity of metallurgy. It's an alloy of Uranium, Titanium and Carbon. Concentrations vary along the weapon, making it one of a kind. Titanium makes the metal harder, less likely to shatter on impact, almost the entire weapon contains the stuff. Carbon makes it more flexible and stronger, it makes it less stiff and more resistant to shock. It's mostly in the blade's edge, in the form of carbon nanotubes. And lastly Uranium adds environmental resistance into the mix, giving it a higher melting point and making it effective even in lower temperatures. It's mostly in the handle and the back of the blade, for balance and more striking power, she characterized the sword like it was the meaning of her life. Each word was said with such passion that I felt the need to check the handle for elvish writing, just in case.

The sword honestly fascinated me. It looked like an almost carbon copy of Corvo's sword from Dishonored 1&2 minus the folding part. It had short, spiky hand guards that were artistic and useful if one was fighting a duel. Only one side had an edge with a slight curve towards the end. The other side's end also carried an edge, making thrusts an effective combat strategy. All in all, the weapon carried a certain style that somehow grabbed me and amazed me.

"Wow" Whistled Shepard, impressed by the quality of the sword.

"Yeah, but still, it's a sword. How can you be effective with this on the field?" asked Vito, scrutinizing the sword. Yvonne sighed and explained.

"I can channel my biotics into the sword, adding a warp effect to the blade and I fully integrated the sword into my combat style"

"This, coupled with a shotgun are my weapons of choice. Using Teleporting and Biotic Charges I get close to every enemy and deal with them quickly" She told us calmly "It's honestly just a clusterfuck" She giggled and I too was holding back laughter at the prospect, especially because it was like the normal Vanguard strategy for almost every player back in the day. Charge in, max shields, Nova or Melee until recharge is over, shields down at this point, Charge again to regain shields, rinse and repeat.

Once the giggling was over it was my turn to speak.

"How did you end up here anyways?" She shrugged.

"Higher than average score in basic, military family, and I don't really fit into normal squads" She told us her thoughts.

"Makes sense. What about you Vito?" I looked at the man. I could get a good look at him now that I wasn't distracted with his… condition. He had slightly toned skin, typical of Mediterranean people, with good build, although maybe the synthetic parts were to blame for that. He had a dark brown, semi-long curvy hair that was rather unkempt. His eyes were hazel brown with a neutral look on; somehow I felt that this guy had quite the stories if I had to guess. He took a sip from his bottle before answering.

"Well, I'm a combat hacker/engineer and explosives expert, as for why I'm here, I'm good with explosives. Really good" He emphasized the last part.

"Oh really? Care to share an example?" Yvonne chimed in. Vito looked to be in thought before speaking up.

"There was one time way before I joined up when I was about 11-12?" He began.

"I lived on a farm when I was younger and when I was punished for something my parents would lock me in our barn" He gestured with his hands while talking.

"One day I had enough and decided to blow out the barn doors, so I made IED with a bag of fertilizer, a jar of piss, a match and bit of duct tape" I whistled at this.

"What kind of kid builds IEDs in his parents' barn? Or anywhere actually" I commented.

"I wasn't a normal kid, alright" He defended himself.

"Anyway, I put the DIY package of doom next to the door, activated it, ran to cover and waited" He was totally in the story and so were we.

"Did it work?" Asked Shepard leaning on the table.

"Yes it did, a bit too well actually" He cringed "The door came down…. and so did the rest of the barn. I later learned that the IED had the destructive power of about ten kg of TNT" Vito told us sheepishly.

"It's a wonder you've survived" Said Yvonne, amazed that he was in one piece, well mostly.

"Is that the reason you look like Robocop?" I couldn't resist myself, really I couldn't.

He actually laughed at that and shook his head.

"No these are from another accident; I'll tell you all about it later." He grinned.

"And you, Shep? What's your story?" Yvonne asked, genuine curiosity lacing her voice.

"I'm a Vanguard too, although I specialize in more destructive techniques" She told the other two, since I knew all about her abilities by that point.

"Care to share some stories?" Vito chipped in, taking a swig.

"Well my flare is strong enough to disable a main battle tank and my barrier is tougher than a wall of tungsten, that's for sure" She boasted, I snorted at her ego.

"Still, can't do the Blackstar can you?" I commented, enjoying the look on her face when she heard what I brought up, again.

"For the sixteenth time Will, there is no such technique. You just made that one up" he stated, frustrated. I've been nagging her with this for quite a while.

"Black- what?" Frowned Yvonne. I turned to explain.

"I made that one up so she won't think she's queen of the galaxy, just for being a biotic" I explained the situation. She nodded with an 'oohh' expression and Vito chimed in.

"What is it about anyway?" I prepared myself to defend my case and straitened myself, beer in hand.

"Now, we all know what element zero is and what it does" I stopped to see their nods, when I saw them listening I continued.

"We also know what biotics is, now my idea is really just a furthering of the basic principle to the extremes" I stated, taking a swig.

"Biotics manipulate Dark Energy to change an object's mass, thus changing its gravity. And what do we call an anomaly with extreme gravitational properties?" I practically put the solution onto their tongues.

"A gravitational singularity, a black hole" Vito threw in the answer easily.

"Bingo!" I exclaimed. Yvonne frowned a bit at this.

"Of course it doesn't exist, no biotic, no matter how powerful could create anything close to that" She shook her head, taking a swig.

"Exactly! I use it as a reminder that biotics are not demigods or something" I explained my reasoning.

"Actually, it's possible" We all looked at Vito with a 'wtf' expression on.

"It would be complicated as hell, but it could be done" He held his beer in his cold, metal hands.

"How?" Shepard voiced our thoughts. Vito shrugged and began explaining.

"Like you said, it only needs basic biotic knowledge. We all know that our nerves control the Eezo and its effects, now people forget that the electric currents also power it, without that it's useless. And to add to the problem, a said volume of eezo can only increase or decrease an object's mass by so much."

"Anyway, to make a combat capable black hole, like the tenth of a proton large one, you'll need three things"

"control, or connection to the nervous system, enough eezo to change mass with and enough power to be used to create and maintain the Kugelblitz black hole" He listed off his fingers.

"You could expose your nervous system, so control can be ticked off. Industrial amounts of eezo could be poured onto the person granting the necessary mass/change ratio. Power is a bit tricky, you'd need Terawatts of energy, preferably in electric form, since it reacts with eezo far better than any other force and lastly you would need to survive the process. That problem solves itself surprisingly. See, eezo has the really useful ability of being a room temperature superconductor. Meaning the charge will only follow the path of the eezo, leaving everything else alone" Vito finished his little lecture about the internal mechanizations of weaponized black holes.

"Vito"

"Yes Carter?"

"What the hell are you doing in the military and why aren't you in a lab somewhere curing cancer and shit?"

"…This job pays better" He told me quietly, finishing his drink.

"It's your turn, Will" Yvonne pointed at me, Vito nodding in agreement.

"Alright, let's see… I'm a pretty good sharpshooter if I had to guess" I responded hesitantly.

"How long was your farthest shot?" He asked, reaching for a new bottle.

"About.. 2100 meters, although it was just a snapshot" I honestly told them, leaving out the part out that it wasn't technically me and that it was a headshot even. They paled at this me, mouths gaping.

"You should be proud Will, the galactic record in Earth conditions is 3700 meters" commented Shepard, I shrugged at this, 'maybe I should be' I thought.

"I see you have got to know each other well" Came the voice of someone. We turned outwards to see a rather old looking and gruff man standing at our table.

"Major David Young" He introduced himself "I'll be your CO for the foreseeable future"

"There are a few things you need to know about operations in the Terminus" He told us and I could swear he was talking like he wrote a speech and memorized it word for word.

"Firstly, due to our position out in the middle of bloody nowhere, our supply lines are absolutely rubbish. To solve this problem we get what we need from the black market. If you need anything, ask Navil, he's our connection" He pointed over his shoulder.

"Secondly, our operations aren't exactly accepted as Alliance space is some 65 000 lightyears away. Consider our jobs as grey ops"

"Grey ops?" Shepard interjected, the Major looked irritated for a moment before explaining.

"Everybody knows we're here doing our business but they either don't care or have no proof of it. Which brings me to my third point, don't advertize our presence, this place is safe ground, you can talk about anything in here, everywhere else keep your mouths sealed" He gestured around the pub.

"And lastly, we'll be using codenames for our operations. You can call the others your bloody uncle outside of missions for all I care" Young told us with a straight face, voice flat.

"Now, do any of you have nicknames already?" He asked, Vito and Yvonne shook their heads, while me and Shepard glanced at each other.

"Mine is Deadshot" I said meekly, he narrowed his eyes at me.

"That's the most ridiculous name I have ever heard, Jackdaw" He told me, eyes never leaving me, I looked at him confusedly.

"Why Jackdaw?" I questioned.

"Because I have the feeling you won't keep your mouth shut" Young smirked and I was about to retort when I realized what he wanted to achieve.

"Fine, but only if Shepard's name will be Raven" I offered, smirking.

"Hey!" Exclaimed Shepard, punching me in the shoulder and glaring daggers at me. The Major looked at me for a few seconds before speaking.

"Deal"

Shepard slumped on the table, sighing in defeat.

"Okay, Mercier, you'll be Balckbird and Santorini will be Hummingbird" He turned to them, the two nodding in response "You can call me Toucan" He declared and we had to stifle a laugh at the choice of names.

"With that out of the way, saddle up, we're leaving for our FOB" He told us sternly. We did as told and hurriedly got ourselves up from our seats.

"We're a walking joke" I muttered as we walked to the exit.

"What?" Inquired Shepard and I just shook my head.

And with that, the British birdman, the French witch with the large knife, the cyborg MacGyver with pyromaniac tendencies, the transdimensional nutjob and the future savior of civilization walked out of a bar.

* * *

I apologize if the scientific parts are not accurate, astrophysics is just a hobby of mine, so please don't stone me. I think I finally decided on an update schedule that I could (maybe) keep up with, which is 1 chapter/week. I hope I could give the 'not another Gallipoli' feel in the galactic history part.

See you next week :)


	9. Chapter 9

Hello there, I'm The Royal Protector and you're reading the 9th chapter of Mirror Images, aka easily the longest chapter (20k)I had the pleasure of writing. I'm wondering if I should just make these chapters about 10k each, thoughts? Anyway, I think I'm officially going to throw my writing schedule out the window, it's not like I'm going to keep pumping out low quality, unpolished chapters just for it being on time's sake. Also, I feel the need to point out where I got some inspiration for the story from. I'm a big fan of Spec Ops: The Line, and it will have some influence on the story, if you don't know what SO:TL is, I **really** recommend you check it out, puts a lot of things in our society in perspective…

On another note, I sincerely apologize if I had offended/angered/greatly upset some people by this chapter. This depiction of a potential world conflict is the creation of mine, meaning a lot of it is unrealistic at best (for the most part) and the entire scenario is just a thought-play of mine where I considered real world likeliness a secondary and storytelling as a primary concern.

I should also put a warning here. The chapter will have some dark moments and gruesome, graphic violence.

Buckle up people, 'cause we're earning that juicy M rating faster than you can say The symptoms of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder and insanity include…

general-joseph-dickson: Yes, Will is going to get out, but he is going to warm that prison cell for quite some time. I would tell you more, but you know, spoilers and all that.

Toothless is best: As I see no story-telling obstacle in the way and I don't have an exact point in the story where I would want to explain it, you're going to get an explanation in this chapter.

Guest: From the bird, they are quite common where I live and they. never. ever. shut. up.

RoyalTwinFangs: Thanks for pointing that out and reviewing. I'm not in the US military, or any military at all, I just turned 18 in fact. I just like to do research before I write.

Please, leave a review if you feel like it, hearing feedback from you guys actually helps a lot.

"speech"

'thoughts'

*sounds, gunfire, etc.*

(notes, addendums)

(A/N: Authors Note)

Disclaimer: The Mass Effect franchise is **not** mine, only things I own are my OCs.

* * *

 **Arc 2**

 **Sub-Arc 1: Death In A Vial**

 **Chapter 9: To End All Wars**

The walk between the pub and our FOB was mostly uneventful; we took Young's advice close to heart and kept chatter to a minimum, making our trip rather silent. Public order on the planet was somewhat intact, meaning that I couldn't hear screams or gunshots, which was always good, granted there wasn't any police on the planet with everything run by private security firms, namely Blue Suns and another PMC that had their HQ planetside, DEFCON or something, I can't recall. These two had a thirty-seventy percent share on the planet's security respectively.

This situation actually benefitted us amazingly, well; at least that's what Young had said. Saying that with no central law enforcement and good infrastructure, nobody would investigate a group like us and we wouldn't catch any unwanted attention in a city, of course the other candidate with such properties was Omega itself, but because the almost non-stop turf wars that option was discarded quickly.

As for the environment itself, it felt odd. The star was a blue giant, this was weird on itself but this also gave everything a slight blue tinge, it was like when you wake up from almost falling asleep and see everything in blue for a few moments. The other weird fact was that plants looked… different, some were familiar like a few palm trees but others stood out like a sore thumb. Remember when I said that when this place was in its prime the immigration rates were sky high? Apparently they brought their plants with them. This had the unusual effect of creating a free-for-all battle royale between different plants. The result is that the planet had an… interesting color palette to say the least. Lastly, the temperature would be uncomfortable for a normal person with its 30 degrees (86° F) average, it didn't bother me that much as I spent the previous months in the Australian desert. Compared to that place this was like the goddamn taiga.

"Alright, we're here" stated Young when we turned a corner to see a warehouse that could use a bucket of paint… or a few. A few windows were shattered and I think about three quarters of the walls were graffitied to hell.

"Neat" was all that Shepard said. Young chose not to comment and just walked to what we presumed was a doorway, we followed him and stopped in front of a… normal key door?!

The others seemed perplexed by this and Young took out five keys from a pocket. He passed us four.

"Don't lose them, I had to make them myself since they stopped manufacturing them" We inspected the small metal objects, the others like it was a museum piece and I just eyed it with curiosity.

"A key?" The skepticism in Vito's voice was clear like the midday sun.

"Yes, what about it?" Asked Young, unlocking the door.

"Why not a passcard or a retinascan or something?" Vito questioned with a raised eyebrow.

"Have you ever tried to hack a key?" Young responded off-handedly, Vito had an unreadable expression on for a second.

"Point taken" He begrudgingly admitted and we went inside to see… another gate, this time with more modern security measures, namely a retina scanner, oh and the door must have weighed about a ton by the looks of it 'Definitely blast-resistant' I noted to myself.

Young unlocked this as well and I could feel the hydraulics struggling to open the gate. Once it was fully open we could clearly see the inside.

The room was large, about as large like an aircraft hangar if I had to guess. The walls were made of reinforced concrete with clearly visible support beams running all the way up to the roof. The roof was vaulted upwards, horizontal and parallel steel beams supporting the weight of the structure. The main gates of the warehouse/hangar were welded together, completely sealing them. Just below the roof windows lined the upper wall, providing some level of lighting, although not nearly enough.

Yvonne whistled and span around as we made our way inwards, the others likewise marveling the size of our new home. Young didn't stop until he reached a smaller building; we stopped almost in the middle of it all, next to a large circular table with no seats.

"And let there be light" commented Young and one after the other the lights on the ceiling came to life, basking the room in light. Now I could make out a lot more details and the true size of it all enthralled me.

"Wow" Apparently the others shared my condition and were trying to pick up their jaws from the floor.

There were several smaller structures on differing levels; connected by stairs, catwalks and elevators alike, on ground level I could see a fully equipped shooting range with holographic projectors and the like. I looked elsewhere to see mountains of crates lying around, all having different labels and color codes. I could see an armory as well, which was fully stocked from what I could see, in the distance I could make out shuttle parked next to each other, with a closeable gate on the roof, and this was just on the ground level! I couldn't wait to see what the upper structures held.

"Welcome to ASF Team Delta" echoed the voice of Young. We looked around to find him; we spotted him leaning against the railing on a catwalk near one of the structures.

"We'll have this place all to ourselves?" Inquired Yvonne, she didn't even need to shout, the room magnifying her voice.

"No. We'll be sharing with the rest of Delta. They will be arriving in the coming week" He explained as he pushed himself away from the railing.

"There are others?" I questioned. 'How big is this team?' Young chuckled.

"The name is a bit misleading isn't it?"

"The ASF has four 'teams'" He told us, slowly coming down the stairs.

"Team Alpha operates in Alliance space. Team Beta is doing its thing in Council Space. Team Gamma is out there in the Traverse" He gestured with his hands, like he knew where each area was in comparison.

"And lastly, Team Delta, our job is to further Alliance interests in the wilderness of the Terminus. Delta is the most prestigious of the four, with our tasks being usually the hardest, add that to the barely existing supply lines, hostile environment and the even more dangerous political climate"

"We've been in business for eleven years, doing our best to make sure humanity could prosper among the other species" He finished his speech, arriving in front of us.

"Then why is this place desolate?" I commented, gesturing around, Young sighed and explained.

"Originally we were in another city entirely. We fucked up an assignment and some people got captured"

"Days later the assailants appeared at our literal doorstep and destroyed everything… a lot of people lost their lives that day" he remembered somberly.

"Almost everyone was sent either into hiding or back into Alliance space"

"We've waited two years for everything to blow over, now we're setting up shop again" He stated with pride.

"How many of us will there be?" asked Shepard further.

"All in all, we'll have 104 operatives or about 26 squads and about 13 support staff, mainly doctors and engineers." 'Huh, a small company's worth' I mused 'Wait, that means…' I realized something.

"Now we're standing in the command center" said **Major** Young. 'Huh, we must've misunderstood when he said he was our CO' I thought in amusement. He walked over to the table and activated his omni-tool.

Suddenly the 'table' lit up light a Christmas tree and several projectors came alive. A hologram came into existence and flickered in different shapes before seemingly coming to equilibrium in the form of a star map.

It was like the star map on the Normandy but it showed an inside view of the galaxy as opposed to a vertical one. Vito suddenly took out a large piece of metal junk from his duffle bag and caressed it.

"What is that?" I asked, getting the attention of everyone in the room. Vito stood up and simply threw away the thing. We tracked it with our eyes, saw it ascend and then descend, expecting it to hit the ground but when it was about five meters above ground level it deployed four metal arms that had an eerie blue hue surrounding them and hastily stopped itself midair. It even had two cameras, functioning as eyes.

"I repeat my question; what is that thing?"

"I call it Gremlin. It's my combat drone" He declared proudly, motioning to the little robot.

Shepard was about to comment on it when it acknowledged our presence.

"Warning! Intruders detected!" The drone interrupted, flying to Shepard and scanning her with a horizontal laser, we just stood there, confused, not knowing what to do. That was until it scanned her bag, finding her shotgun.

"Alert! Hostile detected!" It beeped and several laser dots appeared on Shepard's chest, we sprang into action and everyone took out their guns. Before things got out of hand Vito dashed in-between the two, preventing a disaster.

"Woah-woah! Stand down!" He commanded, I don't know if a drone could be unsure, but it sure as hell looked like it.

"Acknowledged. Standing down" It complied, thank the lord, the dots disappeared and it hovered away to a bit more comfortable distance.

"Sorry for that" He apologized, rubbing the back of his neck. Shepard just waved her off.

"Oh, don't worry, nothing bad happened, besides I would've just put up a barrier"

Vito shot her an unimpressed look like it was an insult directed at him.

"What?" She asked, raising an eyebrow at him.

"Nothing, I just don't think a simple barrier would have saved you" He told her, dead serious. Shepard gulped at this, carefully eyeing the disturbing machine.

"Speaking of which. Gremlin!" He yelled, the hovering robot flew next to him with the speed of an eagle. "Yes?" it chirped "Get out of guard mode and put these four on the user list" He talked to it like it was a four-year old.

"Right away" It 'blinked' with its cameras and started scanning us one-by-one.

"Well, that's disturbing" I commented as it scanned me. Young cleared his throat and we turned our attention at him.

"Seeing as you're the first team here, I have a mission for you" He explained, moving to the holotable, we followed his example and took up a circle formation around it.

"Wait, what team are we again?" I asked, since we were never told.

"As you're the last team of rookies I had put together, you'll be Fire Team Zulu" Young reasoned.

"One thing to note is that I consider rookie operatives useless moving targets for the enemy. Knowing myself, I chose a somewhat easy, yet important task for us to complete"

"I gather you haven't heard about this piece of shit?" He asked us, the hologram flickered and the 3D representation of a virus appeared in its place. We all shook our heads except Vito, who had an unreadable expression on.

"Neutropenia Nervi" He muttered, spitting venom.

"Correct, now for the less knowledgeable, Neutropenia Nervi, or more commonly known as Schmidt flu among humans was a rapidly mutating and very contagious disease" He brought up a list beside the virus and read out loud.

"It killed a lot of people, including humans, about 17 years ago" Vito added.

"This fucker infects your lungs first, then makes its way towards your peripheral nervous system and takes control of it. Symptoms include nausea, coughing, muscle spasms and paralysis" He listed; I raised an eyebrow at this.

"That's it?" He gave me a hard look before continuing.

"Like I said, it's capable of rapid mutations. In its deadliest form the virus was capable of hijacking white blood cells, taking control of them and devouring the body from the inside" He told me with disgust, I paled at this 'Fuck Ebola, this shit is scary.' The others shared my opinion and gulped.

"Fortunately, that strain was quarantined on a planet and the rest was mostly cured" I let out a sigh of relief. Sleep came easier when I didn't have to worry about carnivorous viruses. Vito now visibly flinched.

"Now, do you want the bad news or the good news?" We looked at him with horrified eyes, expecting the proverbial bomb to drop. When none of us answered he just switched back to the map of the Terminus.

"The quarantined planet is here in the Terminus, right here" A star was highlighted with red and it zoomed in on a green garden world.

"The guys in intelligence noticed unregistered traffic in the area and investigated. They found this" The screen changed to a satellite image of the surface and it showed something strange.

"Are those transports?" asked Yvonne, looking intently at the image. Young nodded.

"Yes, turns out that a biotech firm and the Blue Suns are active on the planet, for what we didn't know exactly until we looked into the background of the firm. Their main service is genetic engineering, developing vaccines and new bacteria. They even have contract with the Migrant Fleet for developing a substitute for their immune systems. They modified a strain of the HIV virus to further stimulate the immune suppression effect in humans, giving them tests subjects" He told us gravely.

"The last red flag was that they had mercenary escorts on the planet aggressively searching for something"

"They are trying to find the strain!" I exclaimed, eyes wide.

"Precisely" He nodded once more. Shepard perked up.

"So what's the good news?" She asked tiredly.

"We get to shut them down" Smirked Young, this got a chuckle out of us.

"It will be a simple task actually. Intel suggests limited enemy presence; there are no civilians on the entire planet and I have a plan already. A perfect welcoming mission" He smiled, I shook my head, praying to god he didn't just jinx the entire mission. Hearing no objections he clapped his hands together.

"So, we'll start with…"

* * *

(A/N: start playing These Eyes by Model music)

"Cyan 43!" Shouted Vito from his terminal.

"Got it!" Yvonne yelled back from the top of a mountain of crates. She biotically grabbed the said crate and promptly launched it in the air. It flew a few seconds before a dark blue field of energy surrounded it again.

"Where do you want it?!" Shepard asked, levitating the crate.

"Beside the workshop!" I answered, eyes on my datapad, aka the transport manifest. The crate gently hovered over to the designated area and touched down without a hitch.

"That's all!" Declared Vito, standing up, he made his way towards the piles of crates we had gathered. Yvonne slid down the mountainside and we met up there. I picked up a crowbar and pried open a crate.

"Yess" I squealed as I caught sight of the electronic weave I was looking for ever since I made galaxyfall, only to find out that they were illegal in the civilian sector. I passed my crowbar over to Vito, who likewise opened a crate. Grinning like a maniac he discarded the tool and unboxed what looked like a bunch of electronics. The girls opened their crates as well, Shepard took out a few armor pieces if saw it correctly and Yvonne caressed an N7 Crusader.

All of us except Yvonne went to our own workshop to modify our gear.

Finishing the modification process I looked around room, it was quiet until now because everyone was lost in their own little worlds. I noticed Shepard attaching the new pieces to her armor and Vito doing magic tricks with his drone and a welder. I decided to bother him instead of Shepard and walked over.

"What are you doing?" I asked as I leaned against a cabinet of sorts. Vito looked startled for a second but collected himself and flipped his mask up.

"Just upgrading Gremlin" He answered flippantly, gesturing over the disassembled robot. "With these parts I've found I can finally make a weapon upgrade I've been wanting for a while" He explained further.

"What, you want even more?" Shepard commented sarcastically across the room.

"You never know, besides, I doubt that it will be a simple mission" shrugged Vito and I took a closer look at the piece of machinery.

"What's that?" I pointed to a small rectangular object on its side.

"Oh, that's a capacitor, it will allow Gremlin to do a lot more things" He explained, he brought up his omni-tool and a hologram sprung to life.

"For example, it will give its attacks a lot more juice and a new ability" He started a video of the Gremlin in flight. The video showed it move around, firing a few overloads and hacking some computers, suddenly it froze in place and started shaking, a couple of seconds later a sphere of electricity exploded from the little killing machine, frying everything in the room and cutting out the video.

"Damn, that thing gets creepier by the second" remarked Shepard with an impressed look, I tended to agree.

"I call it capacitor discharge" he told us and we gave him a 'really?' look.

"I know, really creative" he brought his hands up in defense.

"Why even bother with a physical drone? Why not just use a holographic one?" I asked the question that has been nagging at me since I've laid eyes on Gremlin.

"Good question with an easy answer" He said off-handedly "Those things consume energy like a floodlighted stadium, and they siphon that energy from your omni-tool, sucking it dry. That's why you don't see engineers running around with cloaks or other stuff" he offered and I had to give him credit, that actually made sense.

"Huh, anyway, I'll leave you two at it. I think I'll take a shower and get some rest for tomorrow" I said, I yawned and turned on my heels. "Ciao" "Goodnight" They said and turned back to their respective things.

* * *

After a particularly pleasant shower I chose a room and bunk. Our barracks area was large enough so most rooms only needed two beds, leaving a lot of personal space for us. I hadn't yet found out who was going to be my roommate but if I had to guess it was going to be Shepard, knowing her. I didn't mind it actually; at least my roommate wouldn't be a stranger.

I dropped my bag on the bed and took a glance around the room. If I had to describe it in three words, it would be plain and simple. Two beds, a couple of cupboards and wardrobes, a surprising thing was that we had a terminal as well. 'Maybe Young likes privacy' I figured, but that topic about computers brought up another one.

'What the hell is that The Great War they are all talking about?'

I stood there for a few moments before deciding to actually get some answers without drawing suspicion on me. I sat in front of it and searched. After a few minutes I've found something that wasn't thirty pages long. It was a crash course on human history for aliens 'Works for me' I shrugged and started reading the document. My eyes grew larger with each sentence read, and by the end I had lost my faith in humanity… but then I read the last few paragraphs. Once I was done I just sat there, staring at the monitor.

'So that's why there is almost nil racism against humanity…' I thought, half impressed, half disgusted. I shook my head and stood up, went for my bed and slumped on it.

* * *

 _(A/N: play Cliffs of Gallipoli or The Price of a Mile, both from Sabaton )_

 _The Great War_

 _Welcome, this is Galactic History Central, last time we talked about the 20_ _th_ _century of humanity; our topic today is still human history, more precisely their 21th century. Now, one thing to know is that one event managed to influence the whole century, that one event was what the humans call World War 3 or The Great War._

 _To understand the war we first need to understand the political climate of the world. Our story starts in 2021. At the time there was one dominant superpower on Earth, the United States of America, or USA for short. Their position had been unchallenged for nearly thirty years, when another superpower, the Soviet Union, or USSR, collapsed, leaving the world to the peril of its main rival._

 _But as we know in galactic history, nothing lasts forever._

 _A new superpower was emerging in the east, in the form of the People's Republic of China, or PRC for short. They had made several territorial claims in the region. In an effort to guard world peace the USA sat down and attempted to come to an agreement with the PRC. With British support in the negotiations, a solution was found that both sides found satisfactory. The USA had agreed not to support Taiwan and to lower its presence in the region, in exchange Hong Kong was given back to the British and China had to withdraw from the South China Sea._

 _This had caused an outrage in the international community and greatly hurt American and British relations with the rest of the world. Nonetheless life continued on until the spring of 2022, when the successor states of the late USSR began fearing the ever increasing influence of the PRC on the continent and in a drastic decision decided on reunification in order to avoid becoming mere satellite states of the Chinese dragon._

 _The USA and the rest of NATO (North Atlantic Treaty Organization) considered a reformed Soviet Union a grave threat to the stability of the world and moved in to intervene. The successor states, although reluctant, agreed to sit down to the negotiating table. Months passed, with no solution, to make matters worse, decades long tensions started to boil onto the surface and public opinion gradually became more pro-war, simply put, people wanted a war. After a while, negotiations finally broke down and on the 23nd of June, 2022, the catastrophe came._

 _To this day, nobody knows who fired the first missile, but we know that everyone on the planet followed. Humanity around that time had about 15 000 warheads, more than the combined arsenals of the Council Races before nuclear disarmament took effect. The world sat and waited, waited for the Apocalypse, salvation, the end of civilization, the end of humanity…._

 _Which never came._

 _Years before the war began the major nations were in the process of developing counter-measures against WMDs, years later their sweat and hard work came into fruition. When the missiles were launched, these defenses came online, satellites hacked ICBMs, scrambling their targeting and guidance systems, anti-ballistic missile missiles neutralized key rockets and destroyed silos. Still, more than 30% of nukes hit their marks, others wandered into orbit, or escape velocity or had been shot down._

 _Unfortunately the scrambling of missiles led to them entirely missing their mark and detonating somewhere else, sometimes above oceans, or more frequently, on another nation's soil altogether._

 _And when the dust had settled and the world was still standing, a general confusion swept across the globe. The world hadn't ended and only about 1.7% of the population had died and with the coming nuclear winter humanity was faced with a choice._

 _Their decision when told to the Council generated a stunned silence in the chambers. The Turian Councilor simply flared his mandibles in surprise, the Salarian blinked multiple times in rapid succession and the Asari Councilor didn't even try to hide her horrified expression. When the same decision was told to a Krogan Clan chief, the person stared blankly at the reporter, as if he was telling a joke, before erupting in laughter. "Those Pyjacks might even have a spine after all" He told after fits of laughter._

 _With no more nukes on the planet the inhabitants decided on something arguably much worse:_

 _Conventional Warfare._

 _The people demanded blood, revenge on the ones who were responsible for their misery._

 _These turn of events lead to what is today considered the one true world war, since in its 8 years, virtually every country was in a state of war._

 _These warring countries however didn't forget about the true enemy; nuclear winter. In their bloodlusted rage humanity couldn't afford such distractions such as nuclear winter and global warming and in their ingenuity solved these problems offhandedly. Interestingly the nuclear winter completely nullified the effects of the greenhouse effect and the planet began cooling. The different countries built immense industrial atmospheric scrubbers that slowly started clearing debris and radiation from the atmosphere._

 _The newly reformed USSR declared war on NATO and China declared war on its neighbors, save for the Soviets and the Indians. India declared war on Pakistan and later the rest of the Middle East._

 _The main front between NATO and the USSR was on the eastern front, back then called the Baltics and Poland. The gleaming Arsenal of Democracy fought against the burning flame of the Revolution. Mainly European forces were fighting here, with the US's forces tied down on the Korean peninsula and Japan._

 _Eventually the European forces proved ineffective holding back the red tide of mechanized infantry and armor and had to retreat to the Carpathians and the Vistula River, this eventually led to a sort of modern trench warfare, neither side capable of a major breakthrough. Meanwhile on the Far East front the South Korean and American garrison forces proved insufficient at holding back the combined North Korean and Chinese forces, the atomic bombings of Seoul and Busan being the final nail in the coffin. In months the peninsula was lost and allied forces had to retreat to the Japanese main islands. The fighting from here on out mainly continued on the ocean._

 _In 2026 the now burning issues such as famine, war, pandemics, economic collapse and political instability, much like a hundred years ago, served as a hotbed to extremist movements. The standing war in Europe that had been going on for 4 years at that point led to the rise of authoritarian, borderline fascist movements. The same was happening in Latin America, where nationalistic zeal led to the unification of the continent, except Brazil. In multiple muslim countries extremist rebellions overthrew the previous governments and established theocratic states. The Middle East, from Marakech to Islamabad unified under the Muslim League and helped Pakistan defend itself against the now expansionist India, where the fire of the Revolution was spreading like wildfire amongst the populace. The USSR by this time had fully embraced its socialist legacy and it was more united than ever._

 _By 2027, the authoritarian elements had ascended to power in almost every European country and in an effort to save the crumbling continental Union, with 34 pairs of signatures they achieved what no single man, country or empire could in thousands of years._

 _A united Europe._

 _Great Britain, Switzerland and Norway, seeing no other choice, other than futile resistance against their aggressive juggernaut of a neighbor, joined as autonomous states in the European Federation. The new Superstate became the single most powerful entity on the world, with its war economy in full swing, in time nothing could've stopped it._

 _The League seeing the opportunity in the burning world, declared Jihad against all of its neighbors. Not long after, 5 million troops set forward into the Sahara against the still existing African nations and 3 million against the Federation, capturing the region called Bulgaria._

 _On the seventh of August the largest amphibious invasion in human history took place on the Japanese main islands. Millions of Chinese troops landed and situation degraded into an oversized version of Stalingrad in the mostly urban Japanese mainland with casualty figures in the millions._

 _The Federation, irritated at the US's failings and lack of support on the Soviet front and fearful of the millions of foreign troops on its soil, offered a ceasefire to the Soviets with the additional condition that both nations leave their respective alliances, this decision could be attributed to the increasing desire to dismantle international entities such as the defunct United Nations, which by that point collapsed in on itself. The Soviets, knowing that they could never hope to match Europe's industrial capability and with no way of a quick and decisive victory, accepted the proposal, and moved their troops to the Caucasus and Iranian Regions in response of the southern invasion. The Federation did likewise and ordered its vast fleet from the Baltic and Northern Sea to the Mediterranean, quickly achieving naval superiority and cutting off the Arab forces._

 _The Europeans dropped several tactical nukes on key locations and with the additional troops from the Soviet front; they quickly crushed the so called Varna Pocket. Meanwhile, like almost 85 years ago, European forces landed near Tangier and Tunis and in a beautiful example of modern mobile warfare conquered the entire North African coastline in less than four months, leaving the sands of the Sahara alone, effectively cutting off the entire African front, sentencing them to die in the heat, without supplies._

 _With the official dissolution of NATO, the USA and Canada merged into what will later be called the United North American States, or UNAS for short. Later that year UNAS and Japanese forces successfully managed to repel the invaders, although at a great cost in lives._

 _Taking advantage of the near-collapse of the League, India successfully captured Pakistan and came to agreement with its communist neighbor, China. The two Superpowers carved up South East Asia. With the lost territories of the Raj restored, the now socialist government formed the Commune of Hindustan._

 _With the total collapse of the League, European and Soviet forces captured all of the major cities and effectively ended the war in the Middle East._

 _At the dawn of 2028, as a sign of reconciliation, a peace was proposed by the Soviets towards the Europeans. The Treaty of Baghdad would see the return of the Baltics and Poland into European hands in exchange of carving up the Middle East's oil supply, ensuring the continued survival of both nations. The Federation accepted and peace had almost returned to the Eastern hemisphere._

 _The Latin American Union (LAU) still in its burning zeal, wanted to unify all latin countries, starting with Brazil. The following war lasted more than a year and ended in the defeat of the Brazilians, although both sides paid the price by millions of corpses and a general loss of national unity. In an effort to gain back the support of the people, the government looked northward._

 _The UNAS was still fighting with the PRC in the Pacific Ocean, much like in the way of the Second World War's island hopping strategies, but this time both side utilizing the tactic. The American industry was largely untouched during the war, spitting out warmachines by the hundreds every day until LAU forces invaded from the south. The LAU claimed the lands of the late Mexican Republic had lost almost 200 years ago. In the beginning months of the campaign huge amounts of territory was captured, before UNAS troops could react. By the time a stable front was formed more than one-fourth of the nation was conquered._

 _The tide only changed in the autumn of 2029, when several high yield nuclear weapons were dropped on key Central American cities and important supply lines. With this began the largest armored offensive in human history, more than 20 000 tanks attacking the LAU defensive lines. It took less than five months until the main army reached the Panama Canal. The Canal area became a chokepoint where a stalemate had been reached. Several plans were made by both sides, from naval invasions, nuclear bombardments of population centers to even bringing other powers into the war…_

 _But 2030 came, and with it, peace._

 _People became exhausted of war, everyone lost at least one person they considered friends or family. Anti-war sentiment was at an all time high, resources were becoming scarce, near constant economic collapses occurred, rationing and martial law were only angering the people and a second wave of revolutions were in the brewing. Famines and pandemics also took a toll on the populations and the nuclear bombings left large portions of lands uninhabitable. People just wanted it to be over._

 _At any cost._

 _With their nations literally incapable of prolonged warfare the leaders of the world gathered and signed the Treaty of Johannesburg, it contained a simple agreement._

 _Status Quo._

 _The treaty ceased all hostilities and all territories gained had been retained by all sides. After 8 excruciatingly long years amongst the rubble and scarce fires the sun finally shone through the thick nuclear clouds and humanity, although battered and beaten, stood strong in a brave new world._

 _To this day there is no official number on how many died but professional estimates exist._

 _Anywhere from 111-124 million people lost their lives in the nuclear fires of the first day._

 _Somewhere between 48-56 million soldiers died on the fields of battle._

 _At least 78 million civilians lost their lives in the consequent nuclear attacks and conventional warfare._

 _Untold tens of millions more lost their lives due to radiation, famine, pandemics and revolutions._

 _An estimated amount of 190-214 million people with varying degrees of injuries._

 _These estimates bring the total up to at least 237 million, making it the largest planetary war in the galaxy, even surpassing the Turian Unification War. Whole nations had been erased from the face of the planet and the war left entire regions uninhabitable for decades._

 _The lessons learned from The Great War brought many things into perspective. In only 8 years, nation states had become obsolete relics of the past; the use nuclear weapons had become standard doctrine and the lack of interest towards nature cemented itself in humanity's mind, stating it could_ _ **always**_ _be repaired/replaced later. Nuclear weapons, to this day and age, are an important part of the Alliance's arsenal. Every attempt at disarmament by the Council was harshly and coldly denied._

 _Interestingly, despite what many would think, not counting the First Contact War, there hasn't been a single armed conflict in human history after The Great War. Perhaps this could be explained by the words of a survivor._

 _{Portion of an interview with a survivor on the continuation of the Great War, not long after the conflict}_

" _No-. Just… no. I had lost m-… m-my father… my b-brother… and my two daughters in that godforsaken war… I've made a vow to God himself, that as long as I'm walking on the face of this Earth, I will do anything in my power to stop another one from happening… And I'm more than sure every other survivor would agree with me…"_

 _Every year on the 23_ _rd_ _of January, every human lights a candle to remember the end of the most volatile decade in human history._ _ **Every**_ _active member of the military lays down their arms for a day, even if an internal conflict should occur between nations, in remembrance of those who came before them, who fought and bled for the peace they all have today._

 _The Great War is the perfect example of what happens when WMDs are not considered superweapons anymore, of what happens when negotiations break down in the modern world and of what happens when we lose all self-control._

* * *

'…No one dares to anger the one race that made even the Krogan flinch.' I mumbled as I set up my Black Widow and activated the night vision feature on my visor. I couldn't sleep that night, and not because of carnivorous viruses that would give me the sniffles or the fact that humanity had a third world war… which I would have most likely served in and more than probably would have died in… No, it was like something was watching me. It was very annoying and I began to believe that I'm insane.

Anyways, we set out in the morning with a shuttle to the abandoned planet, Folkis or something. Young had told us that our targets were packing up and leaving, apparently having what they needed. Now it was nighttime and we were just by a road, waiting for our target, a convoy to be more specific. Intel suggested that it was carrying something important, judging from the circumstances it was more than likely the instant death goo.

I was situated slightly uphill, just at a curve in the road, with a perfect vision of the road in front of me. The area was in a dense forest, probably the alien equivalent of pine if I knew my biology right. There was an abandoned city a few miles away, the residents more than likely died from the plague years ago.

I didn't bother with a range finder or large optics, since the farthest shot I will make won't be longer than 60-70 meters. I looked down my scope to see Young in the middle of the road, not 50 meters away from me. He was sizing up the place like he was purchasing a house.

He made vivid gestures with his hands, signaling the others to do certain things. Vito planted the modern equivalent of Claymores on the sides of the road in a 15 meter long section while Yvonne and Shepard moved to the sidelines. Young picked up a pebble and looked at me. We were on radio silence at the moment not to alert anyone, seeing that I was observing him, he pointed at the rock, then put it down on the middle of the road, a dozen or so meters away from the claymores.

'He wants me to hit the truck when it's there' I did a mental 'oohh' and waited.

It just so turned out that I didn't have to wait too long as I spotted the convoy in the distance. Young took notice of this as well; he got clear of the road and rolled into a ditch by the side of the road.

I increased the magnification level on my rifle and observed the truck.

It was a hovertruck, that was new, I half expected it to have wheels to be completely honest. I did a mental facepalm and looked at it further, it was hovering above ground level maybe by half a meter, why not higher don't ask me, maybe it was dark and dangerous to fly with no lights anywhere. 'Huh, that actually made sense' I gave myself some slack. Aside from having no wheels, it looked like a normal truck. I moved my gaze towards the passenger compartment and took notice of the driver, a turian, and a batarian riding shotgun. They looked bored as hell, with circles under the batarian's eyes, the turian… I don't even know if turians can get circles at all, due to the plates and everything. Overall they looked like they were about to fall asleep any minute.

'Well, it's time to rectify that' I declared, seeing that they were about to cross the stone I centered my reticule on the turian's head and pulled the trigger on my rifle.

*Crack*

The almighty crack broke the silence of the night and the poor guy's neck. His corpse leaned on the steering wheel, his feet not leaving the gas pedal, the wheel jerked to the left, sending the truck off the road and into a tree.

The other trucks stopped in the middle of the road and Blue Suns started pouring out of the vehicles.

Right into the Claymores set up by Vito.

At the same all of the charges detonated, sending shrapnel into the unlucky troopers. The others, using the chaos sprang into action, the girls Biotic Charged in, with a shotgun and sword respectively. Vito too, began taking out enemies from the treeline with his M-37 Falcon, every rifle grenade fired taking out an enemy. Young charged in, M-99 Saber in hand, he sent a short burst through the chest of a disoriented legionnaire.

Everything was going splendidly until I noticed that a squad had survived the Claymores without a scratch and were about to pepper Young with bullets.

I took aim at one of the legionnaires' head, thinking it was their officer, without hesitation I pulled the trigger once more and sent a shard of metal on its merry way.

*Crack*

The round connected with the person's head and caused his body to limply fall to the ground. Young finally took notice of his bad positioning and turned towards them.

A tad too late.

At once the troopers opened fire at him… only for the shots to ricochet off an orange glowing hologram, an omni-shield. It seemed that these guys had even less training than I initially thought and every single one of them ran out of ammo at the same time.

Young brought down his shield-arm, replacing it with the other; he pointed his active omni-tool at them and let all hell loose.

Quite literally.

The Blue Suns screamed and flailed as the omni-flamethrower sent burning napalm in their direction. Although designed to stop these kinds of attacks, the kinetic barriers only stopped the liquid, not the heat. The mercenaries got boiled in their own suits, flames all around them.

Even after the whole slaver ship fiasco, I was still disgusted by this and flinched away.

When I finally managed to get my gaze back ahead I realized that the fighting was over. I did a last check, just to be sure and found that the batarian from the first truck was still alive and was currently crawling away from the wreckage, with a radio in hand. I quickly centered my scope on him and fired a single shot at the gravely injured alien. I like to think it was mercy killing but still…

As the batarian's soul left his body I stood up and jogged over to the others.

Arriving there I was faced with a happy looking Young, I think, it was hard to determine emotions with the helmets and black outfit.

"Splendid shooting, Jackdaw" He praised; I simply nodded and formed up with the others.

"I saw a batarian calling for reinforcements" I reported.

"Roger that, Jackdaw, Raven and Blackbird, set up a perimeter, Hummingbird and I will look for the package" He commanded, we did as told and spread out over the area, waiting for more hostiles. Vito deployed Gremlin and told it to provide aerial reconnaissance; the flying toaster obeyed his owner and disappeared in the night.

I took cover behind a particularly thick tree and waited. After about five minutes I managed to get a glint of something in the distance, probably about a click down the road. I zoomed in and froze.

I saw a man standing in the middle of the road. It wasn't the fact that he was there; it was the **fact** that he had the exact same gear as me that made me freeze. Urban camoed black and grey light armor with a slide-back visor. 'What the..' I was at a loss of words and then the impossible happened.

He brought up his arm and pointed further down the road, right into a valley visible from my position.

'How in God's name did he spot me…' The odds of that happening was practically impossible. Seeing as the man refused to put down his arm I reluctantly followed his instructions and looked further down the valley.

To see the same man standing there, seemingly looking me in the eye through the scope.

After a few moments he turned sideways and pointed down the road. Dubiously, I followed his pointed finger and saw so many headlights I couldn't even count them.

"No luck here!" Exclaimed Vito, my heart stopped for a second and completely messed up my aim.

"Same here!" Young called back in a frustrated tone. The little flying toaster reappeared shockingly fast and began flashing warning lights.

"Alert! Enemy presence detected!"

"Confirmed! Convoy about one and a half clicks out!" I confirmed the drone's claims and moved to meet with the others. In not five seconds all of us had gathered behind a truck.

"How many?" asked Young hastily, I shook my head, not being able to count how many trucks were coming.

"Estimates from the number of trucks heading towards us show about a Centuria's worth of hostiles" The drone answered the question. I frowned, not knowing what that meant.

"What's a Centuria?" I inquired; the drone flew to me and explained.

"A Centuria is the Blue Suns' equivalent of an Alliance company, or around 42-190 soldiers" It clarified in its perfectly calm, synthetic voice. A stunned silence descended upon us and we were rooted to the ground. I slowly turned to see that the convoy was only about a click away now.

'Fuck. Me.'

"Everyone! Search for a container or anything out of the ordinary! Go! Go! Go!" Young shouted like our lives depended on it… which it actually did. We spread out, quickly searching every corpse and truck.

"I've got nothing!" "Me neither!" Nothing here!"

"I've got something!" Hollered Vito, we quickly converged on his position and saw him crouching beside a corpse in civilian attire.

"What did you find?" Young rapidly spoke, the clock ticking faster and faster.

"I noticed this man wasn't wearing merc gear and investigated. I pinged his omni-tool and found out he had an implant in his brain"

"In his brain?!" I interrupted, even in my limited time in this world I knew that was less than rare.

"Yes, I believe it's a greybox! The virus wasn't here but I think the info we need is in his brain!" He explained as fast as he could, meanwhile me and the others were taking nervous glances over our shoulders.

"Can you crack it?" Young could barely articulate the words with speed he was talking.

"No, the best I can do is copy it, but that would take a few minutes!"

Young brought a hand up to his face, probably thinking how this op couldn't get any worse. He kicked a nearby truck and turned to us.

"You'll get it!" He then looked past us and I believe his face became a few shades paler than normal.

"Alright people! Shake a leg! Hummingbird, help Blackbird with this! Everyone else into the truck! Now!" He shouted and ran back to a truck, Yvonne grabbed the corpse by the shoulders, Vito grabbed the legs and they threw the corpse into the back of the truck. I looked over my shoulder and saw that the convoy was now less than a hundred meters out, turning ahead I sprinted to the front of the truck.

* * *

I opened the door and pulled out the lifeless body of the previous driver. I quickly got in, looking to my right I saw Will doing the same. I frantically began searching for the keys, only to find them in their place, I mentally facepalmed and started the truck.

"Can you even drive this thing?" Will said from beside me, I dubiously answered, trying to ignore the large hole and spiderweb on the windshield.

"Probably" He withdrew his visor and looked at me with a panicked expression.

"Probably?! So the chances of us not dying is 'probably'?!" He protested, I was about to retort when I heard banging coming from behind.

"Get this bucket of bolts moving already!" The urgency in Young's voice was clear as the midday sun. I shifted and pushed the gas pedal to the floor, the truck lurched forwards and we began accelerating.

We were close, but no cigar, as the saying goes. Our pursuers caught up to us and began turning our vehicle into Swiss cheese. I spared a glance onto the rearview mirror, just in time as they reached our previous position. I was able witness as an abandoned truck got engulfed in a burning red fireball, managing to destroy several other pursuing vehicles.

I whistled loudly at the display of pyrotechnics and jumped a bit from my seat, the others doing their own versions of celebration.

"Where are we going?" Asked Will, I looked at him, then back at the road.

"Towards our shuttle I think. This mission is a bust" I said with an unsure expression, Will nodded.

"Intel really threw the ball with this one" He agreed, we heard a little door opening and turned our attention in that direction.

Yvonne appeared and looked at us.

"Who's driv-?" she began saying before noticing me behind the steering wheel.

"Do you even have a driver's license?" She asked skeptically 'Why was everyone questioning my driving abilities?!' I fumed and was about to snap back when Will interrupted me.

"Nah"

"Christ… we're dead" she somberly shook her head. 'Alright this is enou-'

Will jerked my shoulder, trying to get my attention, I turned to him irritatedly.

"What is it?" I harshly asked, he pointed up to the sky.

"You see that too?" He asked for confirmation with a concerned look. I looked upwards and saw what he meant, just not what it was. I could only make out a red and green blinking light with a gap between.

"Oh crap" Realization hit me like brick to the face. The Gatling gun spooled up and the Mantis gunship unleashed a devastating salvo on us while making a pass over.

The only thing that saved us was Yvonne's quick thinking and her erected barrier that protected the interior of the cabin, oh and luck, a heck ton of luck that the pilot was too lazy to load armor-piercing ammo.

Nevertheless, our vehicle was now indistinguishable from Swiss cheese and the spiderweb was now blocking my entire field of view.

"What the bloody hell was that?!" demanded Young, if his voice was any indication, he had just jumped out of his skin.

"Enemy air support" Will simply answered like it was no big deal.

"Just what we needed" Yvonne sighed and returned to the back.

"Looks like our friends are back" she exclaimed, looking out the back of the truck.

I turned to look at the rearview mirror, only to see a high-caliber round tear it off completely. I jerked back and instead concentrated on the road, where I could see projectiles hitting the ground, kicking up dust and pebbles.

While Vito was busy copying that greybox thing onto his omni-tool Yvonne and Young was returning fire as best to their ability as they could. After a couple of seconds the apprehensive voice of Young called out.

"Raven, whatever you do, don't stop" he told me and I just had to reply that way.

"Ahh, I was going to stop and have a picnic while I was at it" I snapped back, unfortunately my CO didn't quite appreciate my sarcasm.

"Our tank is leaking and you can guess what they did" I could feel that he bit back on a harsher response than that. I glanced backwards in the open interior of the truck and saw the road behind us.

And the streak of our fuel, on fire.

'Oh, goodie'

Frustrated, I looked back ahead and focused on the windshield. My biotics completely enveloped the half-broken glass and I pushed. The glass shattered to a million pieces and was launched forwards. It was a little thing, but it was an effective way of stress relief.

Our vehicle was in a less than optimal shape, fuel leaking, shredded exterior, no windshields and horsepower seemed to gradually leave this thing, a quick glance to the engine section, which was sparking like crazy, confirmed my theory that we were dead men walking, or in this case, rolling.

"Gunship!" Will shouted and I had to jerk the wheel as to not end up in a coffin due to lead poisoning. The strafing run missed by inches and I knew full well that we couldn't keep this up for much longer. In desperation I turned to Will.

"Are you capable of taking out that Mantis?" I questioned, hope and desperation lacing my voice. He looked at me with unsure eyes before taking his rifle and leaning out of the window.

I observed him as he leveled the rifle at the flying machine. 'He is hoping to hit that while moving?' I wondered and just hoped that he could.

I couldn't watch for long as I heard the swooshing sound of a rocket propelling itself towards us made me do evasive maneuvers. The rocket missed its mark but Will almost fell out of the window.

"Woah, keep it steady would you?" He complained.

"If you want to end up as minced meat, then by all means" I scoffed and tried to keep it steady for a few seconds.

*Crack*

The rifle went off with a loud thunder and I could barely follow the tracer's path as it cut through the darkness of the night, towards its intended target. It was for naught as the round bounced off of the gunship's kinetic barriers with a light blue shimmer.

"I can't pen' its shields. Unless you Flare it, it stays in the air" He climbed back into his seat, reloading his sniper with a fresh clip.

"I'm a little busy at the moment" I shot down his idea, not wanting to feel dizzy while driving.

Will was about to say something when he suddenly grabbed the wheel and jerked it to the left. Almost instantly, another strafing run was pelting the concrete where we were only a second ago. Despite not being in immediate danger, Will continued turning left until we ended up on a dirt road amongst t he trees.

"There, the trees are blocking line of sight" He told me his reasoning; he released the wheel and went back to his seat. I didn't say anything, actually thankful since we were closing in on our shuttle as well.

"How's the download going?" I asked Vito, half glancing back.

"Almost done, just another minute or so" He answered, his omni-tool and the dead guy's transferring data like crazy.

"We're almost at the exfil site" I reported, knowing that we were a hundred meters away at best.

"Keep at- son of a-" Young exclaimed as a bullet impacted the metal beside his head, courtesy of our persistent pursuers.

The rest of the not so long trip was relatively uneventful, if you don't count the near constant pinging of bullet impacts.

Finally after a half a minute or so we had reached our parked escape shuttle…. which was on a clearing. 'Oh, for the love of God' I cursed as I saw a missile form the cursed gunship impact our shuttle, enveloping it in a fireball.

"Exfil is a no go!" Will commented from beside me and I had the strong urge to punch something, biotically. I resisted the urge and instead chose to set us on another dirt road, back into the forest.

"Mother- take us to the town! They must have had shuttles or something! And for the love of all that is holy, take out that bloody gunship!" Young irritatedly shouted. Will and I looked at each other, I couldn't throw a Flare right now and he didn't have anything to take out the barriers.

Nevertheless he activated his 'AP drones' on one arm and turned to Vito.

"Can you get Gremlin to disable that thing's shields" He asked him, cogs turning in his head. Vito didn't even hesitate to give an answer and turned to Gremlin.

"Gremlin, capacitor discharge at that gunship!" He commanded, still occupied with the man's omni-tool.

"At once" the electronic voice of the little drone could be heard. It flew out the back and into the cold night.

"Raven, get us in the open" Will said, climbing out the window again and deploying his visor. I obliged and chose a path that would lead us back to the clearing.

Once in the clearing I could see the gunship flying overhead, looking for targets. I searched the night sky for the little toaster and after a few seconds I caught sight of it.

'C'mon' I pursed my lips, following it with my gaze as it got closer and closer to its target, meanwhile Will was leveling his right arm at the machine, no doubt waiting for a weapon's lock.

Finally after several agonizing seconds the drone stopped beside the gunship and began violently shaking, electric blue flickering all over its mechanical body. The pilot, non-the-wiser that he had company, made no evasive maneuvers and continued circling above. As it turned out it was his last mistake, as Gremlin let go of all his combat battery's charge, discharging it in a brilliantly expanding spherical maelstrom of electricity. The shockwave reached the Mantis's shields and caused them to short out completely, leaving the aircraft sparking and at a loss several systems. It struggled in the night sky, barely able to stay airborne when Will took the shot.

* * *

'Stay steady, you…' I mentally cursed the pilot. I couldn't get a stable weapon's lock with all the shaking and evasiveness. I saw Gremlin doing its job at disabling its shields and mentally jumped in joy. The gunship was now flailing in place, the pilot struggling to keep control of the craft. The perfect target.

The targeting rectangle blinked green on my visor, indicating it had achieved a weapon's lock; I smiled and gave the mental command to fire.

Five ethereally glowing, orange missiles left my omni-tool, racing towards the dead-in-the-air machine. To my misfortune, the pilot detected my attempt at his life and was fast enough to deploy flares. The deploying flares managed to fool most of the missiles, catching their attention and leading them away. But not all of them. One was on target and hit it on the hull; the area hit began puffing smoke and sparks. The gunship flailed even harder, but obviously the pilot never saw Black Hawk down and he somehow was still able to keep it up.

Not wanting to waste another barrage I watched as the helo limped away for an airfield or for a safe crash-landing. I popped back into the crew compartment, ejecting the spent omni-gel clip from my arm.

"Gunship is neutralized" Shepard reported, half glancing back.

"Outstanding work! Hummingbird, how are we looking?" Young asked the deep-in-work operative.

"Ran into some complications, it could take a while!" Vito exclaimed, he tapped some icons on the holographic projection and continued… whatever he was doing.

"The convoy seems to be dispersing!" shouted Yvonne and I believe everyone raised an eyebrow at this. Just to be sure, I spared a glance at the rearview mirror and I had to admit, she was right, seemingly at random, a truck would detach from the convoy and take another road. 'Why are they pulling out? They have us basically with our backs against the wall' I invisibly furrowed my brows.

"Bite me, but I see it as well" grunted Young. We hadn't needed to wait twenty seconds until only one truck remained. Sounds easy to deal with, right? Turns out it wasn't. The damned truck had some grade A+ bullet resistant glass for its windshields and shrugged off every round like they were bugs. Eventually Young ran out of patience and threw away his Sabre.

"Hummingbird, give me your Falcon!" He thundered, frustration evident in is voice.

"Yes, sir" Vito tossed his Falcon to him; he caught it mid-air and ejected the grenade magazine.

"Do you have those special rounds I asked for?" He eyed Vito, Vito nodded and tossed a spare mag from his vest, the Major caught it as well and swiftly inserted it into the weapon.

He leveled the weapon at the truck and pulled the trigger.

*THOMK*

The grenade flew the distance between the vehicles in less than a second and impacted the windshield, cracking it and embedding itself into it.

Honestly, I expected an explosion to turn the truck into metal junk, but I didn't expect something so… brutal and heartless.

The explosive shell released its contents and the interior erupted in flames. But something was odd about that fire.

'Why is it white?' I mentally questioned, not just the flames, even the smoke was white…

I watched as troopers burned alive inside their metallic cage, some managing to fall out and continue burning on the ground, since the flames wouldn't die out by rolling.

It was much later when I learned the substance used… White phosphorous. Some of the most hellish things I had to witness were because of that damned material. Unfortunately the Major loved the 'versatility' of that dust.

"You brought that one onto yourselves" he muttered and put down the launcher. We remained silent and suddenly the environment became much more appealing to watch. I was fine with shooting people… the ones that deserved it… somewhat… but burning them alive was a whole other league…

The rest of the trip to the town was uneventful and silent. We hadn't encountered any resistance and were making our way through what passed for the suburbs. It was interesting, really. The lack of civilization in the past 20 years meant that nature was slowly but surely taking back the stolen lands it once owned. Creating a sort of in-between, it was chilling to be honest, seeing the overgrown houses and streets as we passed by. It really had a spooky ghost town felling to it, I had the feeling as if a kind of monster or ghost was present in the area, but I just couldn't get my hands on it. Years later I realized that I had been looking in the wrong place. The only burning things threatening us were the ever present streak of burning fuel in our wake and the constant fear of the truck finally giving up and dying on us. It turned out that we didn't need to worry about the last part.

"Uhm, we have a problem people" Shepard worriedly stated, exaggeratingly pushing the pedals with her feet, the action had absolutely no effect, all the while the number on the speedometer was steadily increasing.

"How much longer, Hummingbird?" requested Young, once again Vito shook his head.

"Download is at 98%, it'll need another minute at least" He complained, for a moment Young looked like he was about to catch fire from frustration, when suddenly it disappeared.

"Blackbird, follow me" He got up and moved to the edge of the vehicle; Yvonne got up as well and joined him.

"Sir?" I carefully asked, not knowing what he was up to.

"Keep driving, me and Blackbird will create a distraction if the Suns return, should give you some time. We'll keep in radio contact and tell me if the download is complete" With that he turned and jumped out of the vehicle, arriving in a roll and getting up in a moment. Yvonne carefully examined the situation and with a sigh she jumped out as well.

"I don't know if I want to know what kind of distraction he had in mind" Shepard dryly commented and I had to agree with her. The next minute or so passed as quietly as it could get with the tin can below us threatening to fall apart at any second. Our speed finally capped at 59 km/h. Nevertheless it had a certain feeling to it, I mean think about it, you are on a planet where everyone was trying to kill you and the only chance of salvation might not even be there, but that doesn't really get to your brain as you're taking a light stroll in a truck, exploring town. What's the word for it? Grotesque?

I turned to look at Shepard, she was in a similar state as me, only one hand on the wheel, like a casual driver on an abandoned road and eyes lazily exploring the apartments and streets surrounding us. Vito's earlier tenseness had disappeared and was replaced with tiredness.

"Can I turn on the radio?" I asked half-seriously, half- lightheartedly.

"As much as I want to listen to some music as well, the planet has been abandoned for the last 20 years. I don't think there are any channels anymore" Shepard shook her head and stifled a laugh.

The whole situation was comical to be honest.

At least it was until I saw Shepard trying to turn the wheel as we were about to take a turn at high speeds, to no avail. With wide eyes we looked at each other and roughly thought the same.

'Oh for crying out loud' 'Why is this always happening to me?'

Before we could call it a day and abandon vehicle the disaster had already struck.

We collided with a futuristic lamp post almost head on. The momentum threw my body into the dashboard and I could feel bones cracking. The post sent us spiraling out of control and after hitting a few trash containers, which further increased our spinning and the number of broken bones we had. Finally after what seemed like an eternity of spinning we came to a halt when we hit a wall with the side of our truck.

* * *

I struggled to open my heavy eyelids. The first several attempts before had failed miserably, but this time was different. My aching muscles forcefully pried them open and I not so gracefully coughed up fits of blood on the dashboard.

"-bird, Raven, Jackdaw, anyone?" I could hear the raspy voice of Young from my radio. With great difficulty I forced my mouth to form words.

"Jackdaw here, we had an accident" I reported and was promptly rewarded with another bloody coughing fit.

"How are the others?" he asked and I couldn't decipher if I had heard genuine worry in his voice or not. I decided this was the perfect opportunity to push myself up from the dashboard. I grunted in pain and lifted myself up. I lay back in my seat, panting from the lack of airflow I apparently had. I looked to my left and saw Shepard sitting motionlessly in her seat, minor wounds and bruises decorating her features. I moved my fingers to her exposed neck to check for a pulse.

I sighed in relief when I felt her vein throbbing, that was good, it meant she was going to come about any second now. I glanced over my shoulder and saw Vito gently rolling on the floor, applying medigel to some wound he had.

"We're in one piece but the truck is busted" I tiredly reported and calmly watched as the engine continued to puff out more smoke 'God, there is no word in the English language that could describe my hatred for road accidents'

"That's certainly good to hear, we're done with the distraction and are heading intown" he told me and I heard the echo of a smaller explosion. I turned my head towards the source of the sound and noticed pillars of smoke rising from burning buildings.

"Why are you setting everything on fire?" I inquired, it just seemed wasteful.

"Scorched earth tactic, Jackdaw. Wherever firefights occur, usually fires start as well. Those attract more people, away from us, and besides, have you ever tried to navigate a street that is on fire? I have, and believe me it's less than practical and pleasant" the Major explained his reasoning like he was teaching a fifth grader in elementary school.

"Forgive me, sir, but you seem to apply fire for every problem we have" I declared dubiously and I just received a dark laugh.

"Never underestimate the value of fire, Jackdaw. When you're ready, head downtown with the others" He told me and I could feel the grin across the comm channel. I closed the channel and shuffled in my seat, a hand searching for any wounds I might have had.

"Ah!" a muffled cry escaped my mouth as my fingers reached where my ribs would be. I carefully inspected the area and could, without any doubt, confirm that I had several broken ribs, and judging from my colorful coughs, they had successfully punctured my lungs.

'Just great, just… great' I internally moaned. Not even medigel could have helped me, since the foam worked by dispersing it on the surface of the wound, and I couldn't exactly do that since I would be just choking on it instead.

"Aargh" Shepard grunted from beside me, only coming around now.

"You okay?" I carefully asked her, hoping she didn't suffer a concussion and was actually hearing me.

"Wha-… Oh, I think I'm alrig- Argh!" she cried out as she tried to move around "My left arm feels like it's on fire" she complained and it didn't take a genius to know what had happened when she showed her arm.

"Lucky you, you only have your arm broken" I commented sarcastically "Vito, you okay?" I called.

"Nothing a little medigel couldn't fix, the download is also finished so I'm good to go" he declared, already on his feet.

"Fina-" I tried to say, only for blood to erupt form my nostrils and mouth as I coughed it up from my lungs.

The others were about to ask me about that when we noticed something.

"Is that what I think it is?" Shepard fearfully asked and our eyes widened in realization.

"Everyone, abandon vehicle! Now!" I exclaimed and as one, we tried to escape certain death. Vito jumped out the back, Shepard left through the broken windshield and I tried to open my door.

To no avail.

The damn thing was stuck. I likely couldn't stand upright without doubling over and vomiting out my lungs so that door was my only chance.

'Oh' I punched the door, ineffectively 'Come' I gazed outside, noticing that my doom was getting closer and closer, I moved back and pushed the door with my full body weight, something cracked but the door still wouldn't give out 'On!' I tried it again with more momentum and finally the door gave out and I promptly fell on the pavement.

I coughed up more blood, but I forced myself to stand up and attempt some form of running. I covered maybe seven or so meters before it happened.

The ignited fuel streak finally reached the truck and caused the normal fuel to explode, rupturing the element zero core and sending the truck sky-high.

The generated shockwave blew me off my feet and I landed a few feet away.

"Shepard, you're never driving again!" I snapped as I stood up. I took out my Black Widow and inspected it for any damage.

"I knew it" I muttered as I looked through the scope. Some of the optics were broken and it distorted the image so much that I had rather detached the entire thing and let it fall on the pavement.

'Guess I'll have to use the ironsights' I sighed and I caught sight of the others walking towards me.

"You okay?" Shepard asked they reached me, I nodded and the crackle from our radios interrupted the would be conversation.

"Change of plans people, we've made contact with the Suns. Raven, Blackbird, you two are faster than us, scout ahead and look for a still functioning shuttle. Hummingbird, Jackdaw, meet me at the town's hall, Toucan out"

Without a word Shepard disappeared in a flash of dark blue and reappeared at a crossroad, she looked around and Charged into an outbranching street. Vito motioned a command to Gremlin and the little one flew away into the dark night once again.

"Can you walk?" He asked me.

"Yeah, let's just go before a patrol finds us" I readied my rifle and allowed Vito to lead the way.

* * *

It took less than five minutes to reach the town's hall and when we arrived we were presented with an interesting situation.

A man, presumably Young, had barricaded himself in the building and was doing his best to defend the position. With quite the success I might add.

The aforementioned ruined street was littered with the corpses of about a dozen legionnaires, with the survivors huddled behind skycars and any sort of cover they might had. All of the windows on the first floor were barricaded and the Major was constantly switching positions on the upper floor, shouting profanities and firing at them. The town hall wasn't that impressive, with only four floors and a tall radio tower protruding from the roof.

Vito tapped my shoulder and pointed to another building in front of the hall. It was small, only a ground level and a plain roof. Getting what he meant I did a thumbs up and followed him around the firefight quietly, making sure that the mercs had no line of sight of us.

It was easier than expected as the Suns were pretty preoccupied with the trigger happy maniac in front of them. We sneaked in the backdoor and found a staircase that led up to the roof, realizing it was clear; we moved to the edge and prepped for our intervention.

Vito and I looked at each other and nodded; we popped up and unloaded on the flanked enemies. My first shot missed and instead hit the skycar my target was hiding behind; setting off an alarm.

I scolded myself, blaming my near constant wheezing. It didn't last a second before I tried with another person. This time the round hit true, drilling itself through the unlucky fellow's barriers and neck in an instant and sending him to the pavement. I allowed myself a morbid smirk and continued the 'duck hunt'.

Caught between two fires, the Suns had no real options and we only needed a minute to mop up the remaining survivors.

"About time you two showed up!" Young hollered as he walked out the front door.

"Sorry boss, traffic was a real killer" I joked and joined him in the street, Vito in tow.

"Noted" He sarcastically glanced around and contacted the scouts.

"Raven, Blackbird, anything useful yet?" he asked and the electronic crackle could be heard.

"Blackbird here, I found a shuttle in the old police station. It just needs some juice and it should fly no problem" she reported crisply.

"Brilliant, ladies and gentleman, we might even get off this planet alive" he told us happily and I had to wonder what would have happened if there was no shuttle waiting for us.

"Everyone converge on the police station. We're leaving precisely at 0450" He said, checking his omni-tool for the time, I did the same with my watch and noted that he gave us 25 minutes 'A bit generous but I'm not about to argue' I mused. A round of affirmatives later we started moving towards the station, which was about a click away if the mark one eyeball was to be trusted.

I hadn't even made a single step when I was hit by a ball of blue light. It sent me flying into a parked skycar, spiderwebbing the windshield and worsening my already below optimal health.

"Contact!" Vito yelled and dashed behind cover with Young. I let out a weak wheeze and rolled off the hood of the car. A firefight ensued, but I couldn't keep track of anything apart from my breathing. My lungs felt like as if white hot blades stabbed them simultaneously and lava was pouring in from the holes. I involuntarily began hyperventilating and I was completely focused on slowing my breathing.

"Where is Jackdaw?!" Someone yelled, but I couldn't answer, I was frozen in place, trying to get a hold of myself.

"Heaven knows, but we can't hold this position! We have to fall back!" Another voice answered. This time I gathered all my strength and forced my body to look over my cover. I peeked out and saw a whole platoon of mercs closing in on us, firing on the move, their suppressive fire stopping any escape attempts before they began. Interestingly it didn't seem as if they knew where I was, which was good for me, not so much for Vito and Young. We were separated by about twenty meters, give or take.

Now, I don't know what a normal person would have done, but firstly, I wasn't normal, and secondly, I was in the middle of a panic attack, so I did the only sensible thing that appealed to my panicked brain.

I brought up my left arm, omni-tool activated and fired blindly in a random direction with my AP drones. The missiles, being unguided as I didn't wait for a lock on, flew straight ahead and upwards.

Right into the side of the radio tower.

The sounds of battle suddenly ceased, everyone solely concentrating on the enormous tower and its deafening creaking sounds. Everyone held their breaths until after what seemed like an eternity, the tower slowly began leaning to the side. Shouting could be heard as everyone dove for shelter but my fear nailed me in place.

With a thunderous rumble the tower crashed into the street, completely blocking it. I whimpered as I noticed that it impacted the ground not two meters away from me.

The dust settled and I peeked over once again, the rest of the team was on the other side, with only me on this side….

'Well… shit'

The Blue Suns came to their senses and were trickling out of their shelters one by one. I hunkered down and for the lack of a better term, lost it.

'Shit, shit, shit, now what?! There is no way in hell I could take on a platoon alone' I berated. Unfortunately, my brainstorm triggered another coughing fit and I had to empty the contents of my lungs onto the pavement.

"You heard that?" I heard someone say and slumped against the car, it was over, I couldn't have done anything.

"Go check it out" some other voice ordered and I could feel my stomach sink. I heard footsteps and I reluctantly accepted my fate.

* * *

I came out of the warped space-time bubble that I had created and arrived in front of the police station. Yvonne was already waiting there, upon seeing me her posture lightened.

"Where are the others?" I asked, looking around, she shook her head and pointed to burning fires in the distance.

"Still bogged down, but they are coming as fast as they can" she explained, shrugging. Satisfied, I joined her.

"How's the shuttle?"

"I found some fuel and opened the garage door, the battery's dead, so we'll need to jumpstart it" she sighed "The only problem is that there is nothing to jumpstart it with, and the only person who has electronics to do it with is Vito" she waved her hand towards the town's hall.

I nodded and contacted the others with my radio.

"Raven here, what's the hold up? Over"

"Toucan here, we… have a problem, over" Young was strangely careful with is wording, which just made me nervous.

"What sort of problem, over?"

"… Jackdaw is MIA and we took some hits, over"

I froze, multiple feelings danced in my head, dread, anger and worry being the most prominent.

"Come again?"

"We were ambushed and lost sight of Jackdaw, after a minute or so he turned up again and demolished the street. It gave us the chance to make a run for it, but he was stuck on the other side with the mercs-"

I stopped listening and stared in the direction of the town's hall, 'I'm not losing another friend' my eye twitched and my mind became clouded.

"-Our ETA is five minutes, extraction is still 045-" I dropped my radio on the ground and stomped on it once, the electronic device fizzled and died and I clenched my still functioning fist.

"You're not going back, are you?" Yvonne was obviously careful with her tone, but I couldn't give a damn.

"He's one tough son of a bitch, he is alive" I stated through gritted teeth.

"In that case, you weren't even here, I hadn't even spoken to you" she patted me on the shoulder "Just be back by exfil" she advised and I began walking forwards.

"We will" I answered and disappeared in a rapidly moving space-time bubble.

* * *

Darkness.

It wasn't the first time I saw complete darkness, it was chilling and calming at the same time.

"False alarm, sir"

But I honestly preferred to actually see stuff. I turned on my thermal vision and my eyes were flooded with the image of an ashen white turian looking over my cover, searching for the source of the noise.

It was these times when technology like tactical cloaks shined. The electronics woven into the fabric of my lightsuit bent light in the visible spectrum around my form, making me completely invisible to the naked eye. Of course, a simple check on any other spectrum would have easily revealed my presence, but as it seemed, it was my lucky day, or night and the turian was idiotic enough not to check his IR.

"Don't blame yourself, Private, this ghost town feels corrupted with evil spirits" the officer reassured the trooper. I peeked over my cover, confident that they wouldn't be looking for me. I spotted the officer; it wasn't hard, since he was standing in the middle of everything, with a hand on his ear.

He put his hand down and turned to address everyone in the vicinity.

"Listen up! Platoons Hotel, India, Juliet and Kilo have completely encircled the town and are pushing in as we speak! Our job is to keep the pressure on these fools! So let's get to it and find 'em!" He ordered and the entire platoon moved as one.

'So that's why they had broken off earlier. They knew we would retreat to here and just wanted to surround us' I realized. I tried to activate my radio, but all I got was static 'Great, no contact with the others, nowhere to run to, I'm gravely injured and am likely to drown in my own blood in the coming minutes… not the worst Friday night out I ever had but I would place it a close second' I thought, I grunted and stood up, using the car as support, I looked around. The platoon was gone and the street became deserted.

'Exfil is in twenty minutes, there is no way in hell I could make it before I collapse and black out. But that shuttle is most likely the only way out of this hellhole" I weighed my options, angrily, I kicked the car, only for pain to erupt from my chest and I almost doubled over. Hearing something being knocked over, I looked up and saw the most beautiful thing I've seen on this planet.

"Well… shit, I might even survive this" I chuckled, spat out a bit of blood and stumbled over to my only hope.

A large building with the good old red cross on it.

* * *

Once again, I came out of a Charge and observed my surroundings, not that different from the rest of this city, but a few things stood out. Namely, the number of corpses was definitely higher than the norm you would find on a normal street. Oh and there was the whole radio tower lying on the road thing. I checked my omni-tool and saw that I had about fifteen minutes to find Will and haul ass before we got left behind and got killed in horrible ways. Easy as pie.

'Alright, where are you Will?' I mused; I considered shouting but that idea was quickly shot down as I generally liked to be alive and not riddled with bullet holes. Before I could think further the sounds of weapons going off in the nearby hospital snapped my attention towards there.

I took out my pistol and approached the firefight. My shotgun was next to useless, seeing as I could only use one arm, I only had my wits, a pistol and my biotics to fall back on.

Once I got to the scene I was faced with a literal battlefield, corpses all around the entrance, some wounded were scattered around, clutching their wounds, but I paid them no attention. I rushed through the shattered glass entrance and ended up in the reception area.

"The fucker's upstairs! Take him out already!" a wounded batarian shouted, he was near the central staircase, behind a column; he clutched a shoulder wound and waved at the others. A squad ascended the stairs and vanished into a corridor.

"Not on my watch" I declared heatedly, I Charged up the stairs right beside the batarian, using my momentum I grabbed him by the base of his neck and biotically threw him at the wall. The old concrete and metal gave away, cracks formed and a few chunks of the wall fell off. The batarian fell to the floor limply, his skull likely shattered by the impact.

I heard more gunfire and dashed upwards. I found a team of two humans, a turian and a batarian advancing up the corridor towards a fifth shooter.

"Will" I whispered, I let go of my pistol and charged my right fist. The clattering sound of the gun as it impacted the floor alerted the Suns and they all turned to me.

I didn't wait for any kind of reaction, I just charged at the nearest one and sent my fist right through his shields and stomach, the unlucky batarian let out a weak whimper and slumped against me. Just in time as the remaining enemies opened fire, I moved the carcass in front of me, using it as a meat shield, it got peppered with projectiles, each hit sending a mist of orange blood in the air. I grew tired of it after a few seconds and pulled my hand out of him, I charged my hand again and pushed my open palm against is abdomen. The body flew towards an unfortunate turian, I wasn't paying attention to it though as I was already in motion. I sent a warp straight for one of the two remaining humans, another man. The body and the Warp hit their mark at the same time, sending the two victims sprawling to the floor. The human was flailing on the ground, screaming, trying claw off the shredding effect of the technique. I turned my attention to the last merc, a young woman by the looks of it 'probably the same age as me' her face carried a horrified expression and I couldn't blame her. This whole thing was terrifying.

My internal musings were cut short by a bullet impacting my barriers. The girl ran away and I turned back, I saw the turian, a female, she was in the process of standing up and shooting at me.

To be honest, I was really pissed by this point and I relieved my stress on her. I enveloped her Vindicator with my biotics and crushed it into a little metal baseball. She stepped back in fear and managed to trip on her own feet. I added a warp effect to the ball and with one motion I sent it searing through her vocal chords.

I stood there, panting heavily, still on edge by this whole ordeal. I was painfully aware about the man on the floor, still flailing about, so I decided to relieve the rest of my stress. I turned around and I could feel the lack of shields around him. I imagined… a whip, grabbing him and bringing him to me. I followed my fantasy and formed a long, slim rope of biotics, a Lash as I would later know.

The Lash grabbed the still burning and screaming man, I yanked the lash and he was sent flying towards me. I concentrated on my fist again and punched him midair as he was about to pass me. The screaming stopped, courtesy of a broken neck, I suppose.

 ***CRACK-CRACK-CRACK***

Three shots, louder than thunder could be heard and I had the urge to cup my ears.

* * *

'I deserve to die' I simply stated as I was discovered by a platoon of enemies. It was all going fine and dandy until I let my idiocy get the better of me. I forgot that cloaks needed to recharge. Not as much as in the game, mind you, they even lasted a hell of a lot longer, minutes if you were careful. I dived over the reception's desk and took cover just before a literal wall of bullets demolished the entire room.

The glass shattered, wood was flying everywhere, acting as shrapnel and the constant impacts generated a literal dust cloud that eventually spread out to the front of the building.

I chose this moment to do something, and do something I did.

I vaulted over as quietly as possible and took out three fragmentation grenades. I pulled the pins and roll-shoved them out the entrance in a quick succession. For a moment nothing happened, then I heard yelling.

*B-B-BANG*

The three grenades exploded and I, using this as a perfect opportunity run to the stairs, if you could even call running my shenanigans. As soon as I reached a column, I got a round in my left shoulder. I cried out in pain and stumbled and almost fell face-first into the floor, but I caught myself and hid behind the pillar.

I tried to ignore the ever decreasing chances of my survival and took out my rifle. I pressed the rifle against the column, in an effort to control my shaky aim. The Legionnaires stormed through the front and I leveled my rifle at the head of one.

* **Crack** *

I pulled the trigger and his body slumped to the floor, his low-grade shields doing nothing to stop his demise. It seemed as if he had an itchy trigger finger as his SMG fired continuously until the mag run out. Needless to say, this caused a huge mess.

Everyone's vision was hazy in the still present debris cloud and as the undisciplined bastards as they are, they began shooting at everything. I shot once again and got someone in the arm; she spun around in place and sprawled to the floor, trying to crawl to cover. Unfortunately for me, some of my new friends wisened up and realized where I was.

The gunfire had the same effect as before and slowly pulverized my cover, running out of options I fired blindly and I was rewarded with a scream of someone. The thermal clip ran out and the gun ejected it, I inserted a new one, the last one, I was painfully aware.

I patiently waited for someone to round the corner and meet their demise, but the universe felt like laughing in my face would have been better. A small, avocado shaped object bounced a few times beside me until it came to a stop near the wall. I examined the thing and my eyes widened as I recognized the symbol of a burning flame.

"Oh, for crying out loud!" I exclaimed and the grenade exploded. I was blasted off my feet, again, and impacted the stairs. I groaned and noticed that I felt a bit… warm.

I looked down on my vest and was made painfully aware of the fact that I was on fire.

I shouted profanities as I tried to tear off my burning vest and after a few seconds of wrestling and detaching I was free once again.

*Crack*

A pellet impacted the wall beside me and I bolted up the stairs, I looked back while running and saw a whole squad of people coming after me. My lungs flared in protest and I was forced to stop for the millionth time. I took cover behind a corner and took a few seconds of rest.

 ***B-B-B-BANG***

The building shook as multiple explosions went off at the same time. A moment later I felt a pressure wave rush past me, kicking up dust all over the corridor. I peeked outside to find my vest had stopped being on fire.

It had stopped existing at all.

Turns out, explosives, such as frags and concussion grenades don't mix with fire as the pursuing mercs found out, the painful and lethal way.

I let out a tired chuckle and stumbled along the corridor, already hearing reinforcements storming up the stairs.

I desperately searched for a room that had a door that wasn't closed. These doors hadn't had power for decades and I wasn't in the condition to pry them open.

"Thank the maker" I smiled when I saw an open room, although my happiness was short lived as another squad found me and was about to open fire on me. I dove in the doorway just in time and promptly landed on my throbbing chest.

I didn't have the energy nor the motivation to stand up. I was fully ready to simply roll over and die, 'Maybe my next life would be considerably less dangerous' I commented dryly.

I heard sounds of a firefight, but to be honest, I didn't care. I crawled to a medical bed directly in front the doorway and pulled myself into a sitting position, facing the door. I extended the bipod once more and set it up beside me, I didn't have the energy left in me to even hold a rifle, granted it was a heavy piece of machinery.

I heard screaming and even more gunfire emanating from the corridor, not that it mattered, I wasn't about to check it out.

Suddenly a woman with a gun appeared in front of me; I almost had a heart attack and fired on reflex.

 ***CRACK***

The sound of a high-caliber sniper rifle indoors could make someone deaf. It was almost the case with me, since my visor and its functions were all but busted.

Still, I like to think I was the luckier one between the two of us. The round tore off her lower left leg, simple as that, a hit from a rifle like that does that to people this close. She collapsed onto her right knee, screaming her lungs out, clutching the remains of her leg.

 ***CRACK***

I swiftly moved the barrel to her other leg and pulled the trigger again. The projectile blew off her entire leg, lower than the knee. She collapsed on the floor, whimpering and crying, a pool of blood forming around her.

 ***CRACK***

I couldn't stand the sight of people in such state, my stomach just didn't allow it, and so I pulled the trigger to put an end to her sufferings. The bullet blew a large hole in her chest and silenced her weak crying. The thermal clip was ejected from the weapon and it rolled on the floor next to me, it gave me a painful reminder that I had just 'wasted' my last shot to end the suffering of an enemy. At the time I didn't know whether that made me a good person or not, especially as I was the one to put her in such a state to begin with.

* * *

I closed in the distance, mindful of the corpse in the doorway. I stacked up to the door and took a heavy breath.

'Please, be alive' I prayed to whoever was listening and edged closer to the doorway.

I quickly got out of cover and turned the corner to find… Will lying against a bed, almost directly in front of the entrance. He was panting heavily, sniper rifle discarded to the side, a spent thermal clip beside it. He held a combat knife in his hand, ready to throw. His visor was broken on multiple spots, in some places missing entirely; his suit was in no better condition, torn and coated in blood in most places. We stared at each other, in a sort of Mexican standoff before his armed hand fell tiredly in his lap and I could catch a glimpse of a grin through the cracks of his shattered visor and bloodied teeth.

"Where is your noble steed, my knig-" he attempted a joke, but fell short as he erupted in a coughing fit.

"In the police station. Jesus Will, are you okay?" I asked worriedly and moved closer to him.

"Just suffocating in my own blood, that's all" he explained, I crouched next to him and examined him "It's internal so not even the magic foam can get to it" he told me with a pained expression. I entered a kind of emergency mode that I hadn't entered since… Mindoir. My mind was racing with ideas and possible solutions and I moved to help Will up.

"Don't worry, I have a plan" I told him with as much confidence as I could muster. 'God, I hope it helps'. With great difficulty and a lot of support, he managed to stand up and I laid him down the bed and removed his visor.

"What are you doing?" he asked with a confused expression as I moved around the room, activating machinery and looking for a particularly useful item. I gave a silent thank you to the hospital staff that they were bright enough to have separate power sources for everything.

"Saving your ass, that's what I'm doing" I explained without looking, I did a mental 'ahah' and smiled when I found a syringe in good condition.

"No, I mean how do you know what to do?" he gestured around the room. I searched the cupboards for a vial of medigel and moved back to Will. I filled the syringe with medigel and brought a mechanical arm closer.

"Like every student, I had to do community service at some point. I did mine on a hospital back on Mindoir-" I began explaining before he interrupted me.

"Wait, there were hospitals on Mindoir? I thought that newfound colonies only have small towns?" he questioned and I stopped everything I was doing and looked him in the eye.

"So, you think that there is Earth, and the rest is countryside?" My eyes twitched with irritation at the stereotype.

"And what if I do?" He gave me mischievous smile, I wasn't as amused.

"I have a syringe with the only thing capable of saving your miserable life" I narrowed my eyes at him "And it's very fragile" I added the last part with a whisper and a cocky grin.

"Point taken" He admitted begrudgingly. I activated the monitor on the arm and scanned Will.

"Anyway, as I said, I spent my mandatory community service in a hospital; I handled smaller children, played with them, gave them company when their relatives weren't there" I told him, nostalgia fondly reminding me of old times.

"I take it you liked doing it?" Will asked further and I had to suppress a snicker.

"Heck no, I can't stand being around little kids" I struggled to keep a straight face.

"Then why did you do it?" He asked with a smile spreading over his face. I looked at the monitor and saw the results of the medical scan. He was right; his ribs were all over the place.

"I… I wanted to be a doctor when I was younger and that was the closest thing I could actually do at the time" I admitted sheepishly "Probably saw too many episodes of Dr. Bright" I could feel my face redden. Will just stared at me like I was a madwoman until he burst out laughing, I was about to punch his ugly face when his body did the punishment for me and he choked on his blood. A coughing fit later he managed to collect himself.

"I-I'm so sorry, but I just imagined you in medical clothes, sitting at a desk and your assistant telling you that your next appointment was ready" he spat out a bit of blood and grinned at me. I shook my head, chuckling. I prepared the syringe and injected the clotting agent and anesthetic. He winced at the needle puncturing his skin but otherwise remained silent.

"Usually, I had a lot of free time, so I would watch nurses go around, do their things or go sit in an observation room and see how surgeries went. By the end of my service time, every one of the hospital staff knew who I was and greeted me as if I was part of the staff" I daydreamed, remembering the good old times.

I carefully pulled out the empty needle and discarded it to the side.

"There, you shouldn't die from asphyxiation now" I told him earnestly. He nodded in thanks and sat up, after that, a sort of comfortable silence descended on us.

"… I never thanked you" I looked him in the eye.

"Thanked me what?" He asked.

"…After Mindoir… I wasn't myself for God knows how long… I lost my will to live, I wasn't even strong enough to end it, so I waited for a miracle that would end my misery. Then you come along and shake me from my stupor. You showed me that there is a tomorrow to live for" I spoke in a weak, vulnerable tone.

"Now look at me, I'm on a planet in the middle of nowhere, death and suffering all around and yet here I am, fighting the good fight" I dwelled up a little "If it wasn't for you, I would still be sitting in that restaurant, doing nothing with my life…"

"…So thank you, for everything" I gave him a weak smile.

"Anytime, Raven" He replied with a smile of his own.

"Mission parameters completed" a mechanical voice abruptly ended that little moment of ours and we both jumped out of our skins. I recoiled in surprise and turned to look at Vito's flying toaster hovering beside us.

"Jesus Christ, Gremlin, don't do that again, I think my heart skipped a beat" Will berated the drone, fully sitting up on the edge of the bed.

"Scouting mission accomplished, awaiting further instructions" It ignored the scolding and continued hovering idly.

"What was your mission and what are you doing here?"

"Mission objectives included mapping the area encompassing the city and then return to the closest user for further orders" It reported almost immediately.

"How did you find us?" Will raised a brow; it blinked once with its cameras before answering.

"I only had to follow the trail of corpses and damaged infrastructure"

We looked at each other and at the corpse in the doorway "Sounds about right" I admitted reluctantly.

"I advise we make for the exfil point" It chimed. I facepalmed and looked at a window, it was almost dawn.

"We have 7 minutes to reach the station and haul ass" Will looked at his watch with distress.

Without vocalization, we got up and sprinted out of the room, Gremlin following suit.

"How far is it?!" Will shouted as he rounded the column on the stair.

"The police station station is approximately 800 meters or half a mile away from our current position" Gremlin replied nonchalantly.

"We can make it if we go on the rooftops!" I added, knowing that I would have clear line if sight to Charge almost anywhere.

"Bad idea, the streets are swarming with mercs! They would spot us easily and we can't afford to get bogged down!" he stopped in the middle of the street in front of the hospital. I caught up to him and stopped beside him.

"Then what are we supposed to do?! Wait and pray they won't leave without us?!" I hastily countered. He brought a hand up to his face.

"I don't know! Let me think!" He massaged his temples; I couldn't help myself and began pacing, thinking of a solution.

"Hands where I can see them!" I was taken aback by the sudden exclamation and turned towards the intruder. It was a Suns member, an officer by the looks of it; he was pointing a Vindicator at us.

When we made no such move he spoke to his shoulder, presumably to call for reinforcements and I pondered my options.

'I can feel his shields,that means no throw, pull or shockwave. I'm too tired for a warp or flare' I crossed off points in my mental list.

'That leaves only one option' I concluded, my glance to the side went unnoticed and I smirked.

I focused my biotics in my hand and concentrated on a manhole cover. The officer finally took notice of what was happening and brought his rifle up, aiming at Will.

*crack-crack-crack*

I yanked the cover in front of Will and shielded him from the salvo. With a few sparks the rounds bounce off harmlessly. Once the barrage was over I flipped the cover so it would hover horizontally.

'My turn'

I sent the piece of metal flying at him at high speeds… and I don't feel like describing what happened in detail, but it involved visible intestines and screaming, a lot of screaming.

"Now where are we supposed to go? He called for backup, so they will be swarming over the street like flies on a corpse" I complained to Will.

"5 minutes until extraction" added Gremlin; I was losing my relative calm.

"Not helping, Gremlin" I spat and pointed at the drone.

"Actually, you solved that problem" Will pointed out; I turned to him with a raised eyebrow.

"I did?"

He grinned and pointed at the now exposed entrance to the sewer system.

"You can't be serious" I said in completely flat tone. 'That is soo cliché'

He shrugged and turned to Gremlin.

"Gremlin, you said that you mapped the entire city. Does that include the sewers?"

"Yes, would you like to plot a route to the police station?" it chirmed with a tad bit too much enthusiasm.

"If you would be so kind" he commanded with sarcasm.

"Acknowledged, follow me" It informed us and descended into the abyss.

Will looked at me and shrugged; he walked to the hole and hopped down, leaving me alone.

"I hate you so much" I muttered as I prepared to shower at least five times if we got back.

* * *

(Start playing The Last Battle from Sabaton)

We arrived at our stop and I jumped on the ladder with Sheppard breathing down my neck.

"You hear that?" she asked me, I harkened for a second and gave an affirmative.

"Yeah, that's gunfire alright" I confirmed and climbed until I reached the top, just under the cover. I carefully lifted the cover and peeked outside the street. The building, which I assumed was the station, was barricaded and was in the middle of a siege. The attackers, platoons in strength, were moving into the building, securing it room by room.

The dust on the wall began shaking and I heard the rumbling noise of a rocket engine. I glanced at the horizon and saw that it was dawn.

'Shit, shit, shit, think fast'

"T minus 10 seconds" came Gremlin's synthesized voice.

"Will?" Sheppard asked unsurely, I looked down at the both of them.

"Do you have anything left?" I asked desperately.

"A few smoke grenades and a flashbang, not much else"

"I was equipped with a flare in case of user emergency"

My face lit up like a Christmas tree 'Perfect'.

"Give me the flashbang and the flare" I quickly asked them and I could feel them being put in my hand.

"T minus 0 seconds"

I primed the flashbang and tossed it out the street. I closed in the cover and waited for the muffled bang.

*BANG*

"Now! Run! Run!" I shouted, flipping over the cover and doing a dead sprint down the road, away from the building.

"Where are we running?!" Shepard worriedly asked me while running, I didn't bother answering, I just pointed to out left. The shuttle was already in flight, although just above the buildings. I fidgeted with the flare until it finally lit up, the red flame was one of the most beautiful things I saw on that planet.

"Shepard! Cover our asses!" I called out; she took my advice to heart and threw smoke grenades behind us, one after the other. "Hey! Over here!" I shouted and waved at the shuttle while running for my dear life.

As we were hauling ass, I could distinctly make out stray bullets hitting the pavement and the still intact skycars around us. Fortunately, there wasn't any wind to speak of and the smoke trail we were leaving behind was making us virtually invisible.

After an agonizingly long time the side of the shuttle slid open and I could see Young in the door, waving at us and pointing at a crossroad ahead.

I threw away my still burning flare and tried to run even faster than I currently was.

The shuttle flew away to the intersection up ahead, and having enough space to comfortably touch down, landed in the middle of it.

"Smokes out!" Yelled Shepard over the shots and grenades exploding. I said nothing and my face contorted into a weird frown from sheer exhaustion in the last 50 meters.

The door was open and Young was standing in it, weapon in hand he fired a few bursts at the pursuers we probably had.

What seemed like an eternity and a half was actually a few seconds in real time. I reached the shuttle and unceremoniously dived in, Shepard did the same and Gremlin simply flew in and settled in the corner.

Bullets started pelting the outer armor plates on the prisoner transport and Young punched the closing button for the door. It slid into place, sealing us from danger, Young banged on the side of the shuttle.

"Floor it!" he shouted and I could feel the inertia changing like we were climbing a vertical mountain.

"Have you two ever considered running in the Olympics?" Young slumped down in a seat and mocked us.

"Maybe in a next life" I replied earnestly, panting heavily on the floor.

* * *

"I'm sorry to report Sir, but our other agents confirmed that our mole was killed in action before he could pass on the data" A female turian with dark green facepaint, likely representing her home planet, Taetrus, reported.

If the news evoked any anger in the man, the turian couldn't tell, he calmly took a drag from his pipe, freshly cut Cuban and Elysian tobacco in a one to three ratio, just the way he liked it.

"Don't lose sleep over it, new opportunities will surely arise in the near future" he blew the smoke out of his nostrils.

"Continue passively observing the development and notify me if any breakthroughs are made regarding the virus" the man ordered his subordinate and terminated the call.

He turned around and walked over to a large glass window. He stopped in front of it and gazed down at the facility below him, it was enormous, but it needed to be in order to fulfill its intended purpose.

A screen popped up on the smart glass and the man tapped it. The face of a rough looking and scarred batarian appeared in the vidcall.

"Balak" the man said the name with as much disgust as he could manage.

"Everest" the caller returned the favor. Everest narrowed his eyes and remained silent, waiting for a justification for the call.

"I called to check in with the project" the batarian stated, two of his four eyes narrowing in response.

"Project Purity is well under way, see for yourself" the man flipped the screen so it would look out the window.

"Hmm, I see, how is the research and development going regarding the weapons?" Balak nodded in approval.

"We hit a minor roadblock along the road with procurement but everything should return to normal in a couple of weeks" Everest curtly answered and gestured around with his pipe. Balak scrutinized the man's face for a bit, looking for any signs of deceit.

"I will have to put that in my report for my superiors but rest assured, I will personally recommend funding your endeavor" he told the man and closed the transmission.

"One day" Everest sighed and lazily walked towards his chair.

"Where would I put the stuffed head of a batarian?" the man pondered and picked up a datapad.

Well… that was a lot to write. There was so much happening in this chapter, yet I couldn't find a decent enough spot to make a cut, so you got a chapter that took up 38 pages in MS Word…  
I don't know when I will return with a chapter but it probably won't be for a week or two. Also, the next chapter will contain next to no action, it will mostly consist of more character interactions and establishment of future plot points. The Gremlin drone is from XCOM 2, it has the same capabilities and liabilities as its counterpart.


	10. Chapter 10

Hello there, I'm the Royal Protector and you're reading the tenth chapter of Mirror Images. For the past few months I faced a mild writer's block, a general lack of time and a lot of researching time. I improved on the story in my head way beyond what it intended to be. I was content at leaving it at that point but when I reread the entire story I found out that quite a few people enjoyed the story, actually I felt like I wanted even more, then I realized that I had the next 25 or so chapters planned and flushed out almost perfectly. Then I realized how bad it felt that there are actual people out there who want to read the next chapter while I basically did nothing, so here you go.

On another note I would like to announce that the time between chapters being posted is likely to increase as I'm currently researching military theory at the moment. (spoilers) Carter and Shepard will eventually become full-fledged officers (surprise) and there is that unspoken rule amongst writers that basically says 'write what you know'. In the spirit of this I can in no good conscience write about an officer's life, duties and way of thinking without 'becoming one'. In order to achieve some sense of credibility I began reading about the topic. I have started with Keegan for an overall overview and after that I'm going in chronological order (Sun Tzu, von Clausewitz, von Mainstein, Rommel, Zhukov etc.) Hopefully it will improve the story and my writing overall.

RoyalTwinFangs: Thanks, and yes I know that most real world snipers are usually used as recon for indirect fire support but seeing as Will is in spec ops he doesn't really have the opportunity to call in the big guns (yet). I have thought about the grappling hook and through some debate I decided to integrate it in the story a few chapters down the line, my only concerns was that I didn't want to make him a Mary Sue just like that and with the things I plan to implement he'll be walking that fine line anyways. As for the pistols, I'm really sorry but as they are depicted in the games I just despise them. Take the Predator for example, it's literally half the size of an Avenger (I checked) with a fraction of the firepower. The problem will be examined not-so down the line and I think you guys will like the things I came up with :)

dekuton: I'm sorry if my wording was cause for any misunderstandings, I meant to state that it was the largest war fought on one planet with the 'largest planetary war in galactic history' line and I fully agree that the Morning War and the Rachni Wars were orders of magnitudes higher in scope, seeing as both conflicts ended in the genocide of entire species.

As for the Krogan liking the war, you're fully right, I think my fingers slipped when I wrote it, should correct it sometime soon.

And yes, I decided on combustion engines powering the eezo cores, because it just seemed logical in a realism point of view. I wouldn't think the fuel would be oil, but some kind of synthetic compound with better properties.

Please, leave a review if you feel like it, hearing feedback from you guys actually helps a lot.

"speech"

'thoughts'

*sounds, gunfire, etc.*

(notes, addendums)

(A/N: Authors Note)

Disclaimer: The Mass Effect franchise is not mine, only things I own are my OCs.

* * *

 **Arc 2**

 **Sub-Arc: Death In A Vial**

 **Chapter 10: The Curtain Has Fallen**

It had been a week since Operation Blazing Chariot, or as we personally referred to it, Operation FUBAR. To our fortune the medical staff arrived right after we did and tended to our wounds. It was refreshing to receive actual professional medical treatment as opposed to our on-field, half-assed shenanigans. I got a few vials of stem-cells for an accelerated recovery, a cast for my chest and a lot of bandages for my bullet wounds. The others weren't that lucky either, almost everyone needed some form of medical attention when we got back; the only exception was Yvonne, but she didn't do that much dangerous tasks so it was understandable. Other operatives slowly trickled in, but not nearly as many as I expected, there was only two dozen combat operatives in-building, including us. I was currently lying on my bed, trying to sleep, despite it being afternoon. Sleep hadn't come easy for me the past week, I can't explain but I just couldn't sleep. Every night I would stare at the ceiling and turn when I wasn't. Shepard wasn't faring any better, I don't think she knows it but I see her every night struggling with something, nightmares of Mindoir if I had to guess. This was the reason why I was trying to get some sleep at every possibility. Sleep deprivation was starting to kick in and I didn't know what else I could do. My only refuge was Young's apparent loose grip on operations and about everything in general. He didn't care what we were doing as long as we did our jobs and didn't cause any trouble for the Group.

"Corporals William Carter and Kyra Shepard are to report in my office as soon as possible"

'Speak of the Devil' I got up from my bed and changed into some form of acceptable attire. I stepped outside of my room and gazed into the open space of the warehouse. The place still had a certain 'wow' factor to it but it was declining day by day.

Young's office was on the other side of the building and a few stories higher than my room so I wasted no time and made my way to the elevator. I walked through the maintance walks, every step causing a slight creaking sound in the metal frame. I looked down to the ground level and took note of how much more lively it felt with the staff at their work stations.

I arrived at the elevator and pressed the call button. I didn't have to wait long as the large, open industrial elevator stopped on my level.

"'Morning" I greeted and joined Shepard in the elevator. She looked better than a week ago that's for sure. She got her dose of stem-cells as well and her wounds were well underway towards healing. Of course, her arm was in a cast with bandages rolled around it, but she only had to do with them for a couple more days, the doctors assured her.

"It's four in the afternoon" she said with an amused expression. I waved her away.

"Really? I must have hit the snooze button a bit too much" I sarcastically replied, she rolled her eyes and the elevator ascended to the top floor.

The elevator stopped and we walked out to yet another walkway. A few meters later we arrived at his office and I knocked.

"Come in"

We did so and the sight of his office greeted us. It was much more than I expected honestly. From what I knew of Young, I imagined his office to be the textbook Spartan. I was pleasantly surprised when it turned out the other way. The wooden table had multiple things on it for instance; a terminal, a little ashen white and deep sea blue orchid in a claret pot, a framed picture of what I assumed was his family, an ashtray and a model of the first tank to ever see service, the Mark V.

The rest of the room wasn't lacking in décor either. There were multiple plants littered about and a few paintings on the walls, mainly of historical events, some emanated pride and glory, like the one named Invasion of Normandy or First on Terra Incognita, others gave a depressive, almost hellish feeling, for example the No End in Sight, which depicted men as they were about to charge out of a trench or the Streets of Hell, that one was about Berlin '45.

There was even an aquarium in the back 'Does every CO in the Alliance have fish?' I mentally pondered.

"Ah, Shepard, Carter, take a seat would ya?" he looked up from his terminal and waved in front of his desk. We did as told and sat down on two chairs.

"There are a few things I would like to tell you, most of which will directly affect you" he told us and we stiffened, my mind was flooding with possibilities and worries. The last time this happened I was drafted into Spec Ops and of course there was the thing with Shepard's direct defiance to an order, it wasn't mentioned this past week but the possibility still lingered.

"What things, sir?" Shepard croaked out, apparently as nervous as I was.

"Firstly, I would like to talk about our previous mission and your insubordination" he looked directly in Shepard's eyes with an unreadable gaze. Shepard gulped and opened her mouth to speak.

"Sir, I as-" she tried to defend herself but Young put up his hand in a placating manner.

"Stuff it, Corporal" That got her to shut up and we just stared at the Major.

"Consider your complete disregard of my orders forgiven, seeing as you have managed to save another operative in doing so. Just don't make it a habit" he declared and I could see Shepard's shoulders slump down in relief.

"And what is the thing, Sir?" Shepard asked carefully, seemingly eager to move on from that topic. Young slowly closed his eyes and let out a tired sigh.

"As of the current situation… a lot of our agents hadn't reported in and O'Neil and I fear the worst" Colonel Jonathan "Jack" O'Neil was the head of the entire ASF, if the ASF was a large family, then he would be the great grandfather. I'd never met him personally but everyone respected him with such conviction that if he was to ask anyone in the Groups to jump down a cliff after a parachute bag; they would dive after it without a second's hesitation. As for the man himself I heard that he served together with Young in the past and that they are still good friends to this day.

"Now that you say it, Sir, it really does feel like we're down a few men" Shepard nodded and I had to agree.

"I also expected a lot more agents to be here by now" I stated my worries as well, it must've been tough for Young, those people were his friends and now they were gone. Of course, being MIA instead of KIA was only marginally better but he was the one who had to delete their names from the database, one by one.

"But as much as I hate to say it, I don't see how that affects directly" I added as an afterthought and I made a huge effort to watch my tone while saying that so that it didn't feel disrespectful.

"It wouldn't normally affect you per see but there has been a new development … the box was opened" his grave tone suggested a not so bright conclusion. My eyes widened in surprise at those news 'Already? I thought these grey boxes were supposedly nigh uncrackable? Hock spent months, if not years, trying to open Keiji's and we did it in less than a week?! Now that I think about it I just answered myself. Hock was a millionaire with 'limited' resources. He was in the civilian sector, where if you were to order a thing like that done, your financial advisors would tell you about costs, lack of profit and how this project would make a sizeable dent in the company's wallet and thus it would be wiser to keep the project expenses to a minimum.

If you were to present the same problem to SAID (Systems Alliance Intelligence Division), which government agency consumes tens of billions straight from the annual budget, they would just hook it up to five supercomputers simultaneously and ask how much sugar you need in your coffee in the meantime.

'Say what you want about the military or the government, but if they focus on something, they get shit done'

"What did they find?" Shepard asked curiously, leaning a bit forward.

"A lot of bad news mainly. Turns out the man who had the grey box was an undercover agent of a third party" he grimly told us.

"Do we have any idea who they are?" I questioned, eager to know who the new boy on our playground was.

"No, he worked through a proxy contact, he didn't even know who he was working for" he shook his head disappointedly.

"Although one thing stood out" he added as a second thought, we perked up at this and he continued.

"From his memories we could discern that every message he received had the same ending" he activated his terminal and read out loud.

" _United we stand_ , an interesting choice for a motto"

That struck a nerve; I thought back to my encounter with the slaver Captain and Project Unity. I wasn't sure if these two things were the same but I had a gut feeling. Nevertheless, I wasn't about to tell the Major. Without evidence my confession would be written down as simple mumblings of a grunt.

"Something on your mind, Carter?" Apparently I spaced out for a bit and I slightly jumped in place. Young and Shepard was looking at me expectantly, I shook my head and answered as calmly as I could.

"Just thinking about any groups that might fit this" I answered truthfully.

"Don't bother, command wouldn't admit it but I bet it's just Cerberus again" he said offhandedly and my brain stopped functioning for a few seconds 'How the hell does he know about Cerberus?!'

"What is Cerberus?" Shepard inquired with a raised eyebrow.

"Just some upstart human supremacist group that popped up not long after the First Contact War" he shrugged "They mainly operate in Alliance space so they're mostly under Alpha's jurisdiction but we do occasionally get some spillovers"

"What should we do about them?" Shepard leaned back in her chair.

"Nothing for the moment, they are hardly more than a nuisance" Young said as he produced a little box from a drawer "Add that to the unfortunate fact that we have nothing concrete about them and you get quite the predicament. Mind if I smoke?" He asked us as he moved to open the box but stopped and spared a glanced at us.

"Not at all" We shrugged and he opened the box and produced a lighter.

"Help yourselves" Young took out a cigar and span the box around to face us. Shepard and I frowned at this and looked at the box weirdly.

"It's Cuban and Elysian tobacco, a personal favorite" He told us and lighted his cigar.

"If that's the case then alright" I shrugged and took one as well. I wasn't a smoker by any means but quality cigars were a whole another league. The Major passed me his lighter and I ignited it.

"Might as well" Shepard sighed took one herself. I passed the lighter and looked at Young.

"So, what's next?" I asked as I struggled not to cough, it was some strong stuff let me tell you that.

"We got all of the company's data on this project as well as a few others from the grey box and SAID dug up everything public and not so public about them, names, research station locations, transport manifests and contract informations" Young listed off as he took a drag.

"We'll raid their facilities for the vial I presume?" I asked thoughtfully and puffed out some smoke.

"Not exactly, no" he shook his head "Raids would spook them and the vial could be transferred to some unknown place not even SAID knows about as a consequence"

"Then what's the plan?" Shepard asked after a cough of smoke, she was a newbie by the looks of it.

"We make ourselves scarce and wait it out. According to intel recovered they are making the virus for an 'anonym' contractor. Whoever this contractor may be, has just painted a target the size of Luna on his head, every intelligence agency in Alliance space will be on the lookout with the orders to shoot to kill. He or she is going to lay low as possible and avoid direct contact with the company" He explained and flicked the burnt out part of the cigar in the ashtray.

"So, let me get this straight, the contractor is going to lay low because there is a witch hunt going on, we are laying low because we fear they would get away with the vial and Cerberus is laying low because they just got caught with their pants down and possibly don't want another incident with us" Shepard leaned forwards and cupped her face in frustration as she summarized the situation.

"Couldn't have said it better myself" Young smiled for a second before speaking up again.

"This status quo will probably go on until one crucial point"

"Until they complete the weaponised version of the virus" I finished Young's thought with a nod.

"Precisely. No partaking party can wait further than that, the kid gloves will come off and everybody is going to show their hands" He took one last drag of his cigar before putting the embers out "That single mission will be our top priority in the coming weeks. Every other op we might have will be put on hold until after the mission, we can't afford any injuries or unfortunate casualties, we're short on manpower as it is already" His tone and posture got a lot more serious as he said this and this affected us as well a bit.

"What are we supposed to do until then?" I asked, not really wanting to stay put in an 'abandoned warehouse' for weeks.

"Spend that generous pay you receive every month and get the hell off this backwater planet and fly somewhere nice. You're on vacation until I say so, and that applies to the others as well" He laughed and we couldn't help but share a chuckle.

"State-paid-and-forced vacation? Who runs the military? The Swiss?" I commented with a snicker.

"I'm pretty sure they are content with domestic finances. Now go and tell the others, I have to do the paperwork for your vacations" Young made a 'shooing' motion with his hand.

"Sir" We nodded and put our cigars. We got up and made for the door.

We stepped out of Young's office and stopped almost immediately, not sure what we should do with our apparent vacation-until-further-notice.

"Soo, lunch?" I asked Shepard after bit of silence. She didn't even bother to look at me as she answered.

"I was about to suggest the same thing" She smiled and rolled her shoulders and we made for the elevator.

* * *

"Got any ideas on how to spend your time off?" Shepard asked before taking a bite out of her food, some kind of Salarian pasta dish that was spicy as hell.

"I'm not sure, I don't really have a home to go back to but I don't want to be scooped up here for God knows how long" I shrugged and took a sip from my 'morning' coffee.

Shepard nodded knowingly and I felt a ping from my omni-tool. I brought my arm up and activated the small computer. It appeared that I got a message. I opened it and read its contents.

"Damn" I stated solemnly, had I've been that detached from everything? My mood changed for the worse almost at once and I stared at the mail.

"What is it?" Kyra asked from her seat, she stopped chewing once she saw my expression.

"I… I just got a message… from a funeral company" I tried to collect myself and continued "It says that the remains of my family had been cremated like it said in their final will and that I should collect them as soon as I'm able to" I managed to creak out the words. I know that it wasn't my family but they might as well be gone as well at this point. For me at least, it had been almost half a year since… my death.

"Oh God, Will, I'm so sorry" Shepard said quickly and stood up, she sat beside me and enveloped me in a hug. It was unexpected to say the least but not unwelcome.

"Am I a bad person?" I asked after minutes of silence. Shepard left my personal space and looked at me with widened eyes.

"Of course not. Why would you think that?" She looked at me oddly. I shook my head and focused on my tray.

"I haven't thought about my family since I met you… Even before that I basically did nothing, I grieved for a day at best and that was it… I haven't even organized a proper funeral for them… God, I've changed too much in the past months. I would like to think it's just me adapting to my situation, but looking back… I'm starting to wonder if I'd lost it" I chuckled and looked at Kyra, who was looking at me like he saw a complete stranger.

"How did you cope with it?" I asked coarsely.

She opened her mouth and it seemed like she wanted to say something but her throat constricted and she looked away for a bit.

"I-I didn't for a long time" She admitted "I was broken until you came along, a guy who was just like me but managed to overcome everything" She chuckled "You showed me a way out and I took it. There is no better way to describe it" She turned her head back to me.

"I honestly can't say how you did it, but you saved me from myself. So if I have the chance to do the same to you I will happily help you" She smiled at me with the warmth of a summer day.

"Thanks" I forced a smile, I felt a bit better that someone was willing to help me get through it, but I couldn't help seeing myself at fault for… everything.

"You know, after the raid I had to visit dozens of psychologists. I hated them all and I'm sure I wasn't the most cooperating of patients but one thing did help me a bit" She mused and I perked up.

"What was it?" I asked, anything that would make me feel better was welcome.

"Talking about them" Kyra laid back in her seat, awaiting a response.

I sat there, not knowing what to do, should I lie about them, should I tell the truth or should I even tell her anything? I only made a couple of friends since my awakening and she's probably the closest thing to a best friend I have and will have for a good while. Still, as much as I hate to admit it, I was still a stranger to the world and making attachments could have been dangerous for myself.

"Tell you what, if you tell me about your family, I'll return the favor" She offered once she saw my hesitance.

"I-I… alright. Where should I begin?" I relented and pondered.

"Well, you could tell me where you're from in the first place, since I know for a fact that Tyrole is a relatively new colony?" Her frown and tone told me that I hadn't exactly told her much about my backstory apart from some normal stuff.

"Originally I was a UNAS citizen as I was born in New York, but I hadn't even lived there a few years when we moved to Europe. I spent most of my childhood there until my father got a job on Tyrole. We moved again and the rest is history" I decided to go with the believable version. Lying to her before about these things felt terrible so I decided to tell her as much of the truth as I was somewhat comfortable with.

"My family was an odd one, but I loved them" I smiled at their memory before continuing.

"My parents were at least as strict as Sergeant Vasquez but I managed" I joked "My father worked in colonial development so he was away most of the time. I always missed the old fool but he managed to appear from thin air when it counted" Nostalgia took over and I got swept away in a wave of calmness that washed me away.

"Yeah, I know that feeling, my father was a marine for as long as I can remember. Been there from Shanxi to Mindoir" Shepard leaned on the table and her eyes wandered off to the distance.

"I saw him a couple times a year, mostly on the holidays, 'duty calls' and things like that" She shrugged and leaned on her left arm "One time he couldn't attend my birthday and came a day later, completely soaked by rain, still in his uniform and he gave me teddy bear the size of a large dog" She snorted and looked at me.

"I take it you accepted that as an apology?" I cracked a genuine smile.

"Of course, he wasn't perfect, but he was trying his best" It seemed like I wasn't the only one who was having a nostalgia trip.

"What about your mother?" She asked after a bit of comfortable silence.

"She was always looking out for us or supported us one way or the other despite her outlook on life" I stifled a laugh "It's funny, my mother was a pessimist, my younger brother was an optimist, my older brother a practicalist and my father a realist as long as I had known them" I leaned back in my chair and looked upwards at the ceiling.

"How did you function at all?" Shepard asked with a raised eyebrow and a half grin.

"With lots of heated arguments of course" I admitted with a chuckle.

"What does that make then?" She inquired and I took a second to think it through, I hadn't thought about that until now, I was more preoccupied with others than with myself.

"I was always an idealist. The reality I lived was never enough for me. I always thought about how to make things better… how to make them something… more" I pondered with a frown on my face.

"Well, what do you think about your life now?" Kyra's voice echoed in my mind and all my thoughts froze. 'What about now?' did I enjoy this 'something more' even though I had to pay a heavy price? My life was now filled with adventure and happiness… yet something felt out of place. Should I even try to find an answer to a question that I may not like? Would I like either answer? Can I like either answer?

"I don't know…" I muttered and closed my eyes as the earlier migraine I had returned full strength.

"Mom was an officer in the Alliance for a while until she was WIA and received a permanent injury to her leg. She was honorably discharged and had a bad limp since then" Shepard broke the lull in the conversation and I refocused on her.

"Fortunately that meant she could spend more time with us" She wore a smile.

"My brothers and I were very close, almost like three musketeers" I took a sip of my coffee "I have a lot of stories that involve us doing some unforgettable things, although if you were to ask our neighbors they would rather describe them as 'annoying' and 'reckless'" I was beginning to dwell up by this moment so I cut my sentence short.

"I also had a little brother and two younger sisters" Shepard continued the line of thought "I was the oldest one of the bunch, so I was the leader of the sorry lot most times"

"I couldn't have guessed that" I commented with a fair share of sarcasm. She did her best to glare at me but her bright expression didn't help her a bit in that regard. I put up my hands in mock surrender and a comfortable silence ensued.

"Thanks" After a while I put a hand on her shoulder, she perked up and turned to me "I needed that"

"Anytime, Jackdaw" She smirked and I shook my head with grin plastered over my face.

"We could repeat this later over something that is at least 2/3 alcohol if you're up to it" I told her semi-seriously and she shook her head in mock denial.

"Alright, you still owe me that drink after all" I heard her say as I got up and began walking away.

"I'll be away for a couple of days" I said over my shoulder.

"Where are you going?" Came the obvious question and I nonchalantly answered.

"Home"

* * *

The shuttle ride to Tyrole went down without a hitch and a day or so later I found myself in front of the gate of the funeral company with four urns of ashes in my hands. I considered taking them to the cemetery but it seemed that there wasn't any space left due to the amount of dead. The first thing I did after getting off my shuttle was to visit my home. Despite the enormous rebuilding efforts done by the locals a good portion of the city was still a smoldering ruin with a giant artificial lake in the middle of it all, curtesy of the exploding ship's bomb crater. Unfortunately our home was still a pile of rubble with snow covering debris.

That brings me to the situation I had to face. What should be done about the ashes?

I began to wander around New Geneva, I didn't have a set destination in mind, I just walked aimlessly, trying to cope with everything that had transpired over the previous months and tried to find some logic to what brought me here to my present circumstances. The walk was mostly silent apart from the folk who recognized me and came to greet me like you would an old childhood friend.

It felt sickening.

I did my best to be friendly and familiar but these lies just caused an urge to vomit in me. After a few encounters and hours later I found myself at the outskirts of the city, I suddenly stopped and looked at the countryside before me. A wild, untamed world just laid beyond the fences, ready to be explored.

"Beautiful view. ain't it?" A voice of someone came from next to me. I turned my head towards him and came to face with an old looking man who carried a pair of skis over his shoulders.

"How much of the surrounding has been explored?" I asked back and motioned towards the forest.

"A few hundred kilometers actually, most of it is owned by someone on the planet" The man shrugged and looked at me oddly.

"Excuse me boy, but you seem awfully familiar" The man regarded me with some curiosity, I let out an inaudible chuckle.

"Carter, William Carter" I introduced myself and looked back at him.

"Oh, of course. You're from the Carter family" The man looked a bit surprised at that "Forgive me, but why did you ask if the place is explored if you own almost anything south of here?"

"Excuse me?" I did a double take and my eyes widened.

"You didn't know? Huh, you weren't there when your father's will was read? Since you're his last closest remaining relative everything he once owned is now in your possession. Including the lands he owned" He explained and I sighed deeply. Way to go, I was so detached that I forgot about everything related to my family. I pondered a while about my situation and an idea came to me.

"Is there any dangerous wildlife in the forest?" I inquired without looking at the man.

"A few packs of wolves had been introduced here to eradicate some pests but not much else" He answered somewhat unsurely.

"Thanks, I should take my le-" I turned to address him but I found that he had disappeared into thin air. I looked around for a few seconds before muttering my wonderment. Regardless, now I had a plan on what to do with the ashes and the sooner I did it the sooner I could leave this place for good. I checked for my pistol and walked towards the woods while a barely noticeable headache had begun forming in my head.

* * *

I had been trekking the forest for about five hours, hoping I would find a good place to leave my family. I had to climb up a few trees and hike a few mountains but I found it… I reached a mountain top without being mauled by the wildlife and I felt at peace there.

I turned to look at the valley below me, it was a sight to see, the white clouds and snowy mountains basked in the orange light of the setting red dwarf. The falling snow was illuminated in the sunset and cast swirling shadows on the pine forest below. The wind was starting to pick up a bit and blew the loose snow from the mountaintops in a calm manner. The lights of the still half ruined city around the crater-lake could be seen in the distance. I exhaled slowly and looked at the frozen moisture coming out of my nostrils. This place was perfect for them… maybe even for myself when the time came. I smiled a bit, thinking how calm and peaceful this final resting place would be, the whole valley was on my name and that of my descendants. Civilization wouldn't expand here for years maybe even decades…

"It is a wonderful view" the quiet, yet somehow powerful voice of someone said behind me. I snapped my head around so quickly that I almost sprained my neck. I took out my pistol and pointed it at the intruder.

"Who are you-" the words left my mouth before I could process the image before me.

"They would appreciate this" a man in my combat gear stepped beside me and took in a large breath of fresh air before releasing it.

"W-who are you?" I asked the man who was a flawless mirror image of me. His hair, his height, his equipment and his visor was like that of mine, even my Black Widow was on his back, strapped to his shoulder.

"You tell me" he told me in a grave yet somewhat mocking tone. The visor deactivated with a click and hiss and revealed a perfect copy of me.

"W-what?" I responded confusedly, with wrinkles forming on my forehead. He disregarded the scenery and turned to look at me fully.

"Who do you want me to be? Your evil clone? Your parallel reality self? God? Maybe a spirit or some other supernatural entity? You get to choose, this is your story after all, isn't it?" He emphasized each option with such a tranquil voice that made chills run up my spine.

"Wh- what the hell is going on?" after a few seconds of deafening silence I put a hand on my temple, feeling my throbbing vein and pulsating pain. The man smiled for a brief second before answering.

"You see the truth for the first time. And it hurts"

"Tell me, why did you bother with all this? Waking up from another life and deciding on signing up with the military, barely legal to do so, joining special operations to run around the galaxy like some gun ho' maniac?" He turned his back away from me and began pacing lazily.

"I-I wanted to prepare- to earn experience that would be useful in the invasion" I lowered my pistol and focused on the ground, I didn't feel too well. He stopped pacing and blew some air out of his nose, he observed the icy cloud with an amused expression. 'How the hell is he not freezing to an icicle without a coat at least?' I mentally pondered.

"No. You did all this because deep down, you wanted things to happen this way, to meet Shepard, to get beside him or her and to save the galaxy" Once again he turned to look at me and his steely grey eyes bore into mine.

"Because deep down, you wanted to feel like something you're not. A hero"

"I-I- No! I didn't want to be one, I wanted to prepare!" I hastily defended and flailed my pistol in his general direction.

"Oh really? But isn't everyone the hero of their own story? Why wouldn't you be different from all the countless others?" He deflected my defense with ease and left me vulnerable.

"I… I just wanted to help people" I croaked through my suddenly coarse throat. He gently smiled, but that action seemed rather like that of a shark's.

"Tell me… how many did you manage to murder or permanently injure the past week while you tried 'helping' people?" His question caught me off guard but I sensed the trap.

"They deserved it, they wanted to hurt and kill others" I countered with a bit more emotion than I anticipated.

"Be honest to yourself, that doesn't matter one bit, and even if it did, you wouldn't care" That sentence struck a nerve somewhere and I lifted the pistol up so that it was pointed at his chest.

"That's not true!" I yelled at him like I have never with someone. That statement went simply too far.

"How many?" He ignored my shouting and my pistol and calmly looked at me. I didn't answer, still furious, and switched off the safety.

"How many?" He repeated himself, my eye twitched and I was dangerously close to pressing the trigger. Seeing that I wasn't about to answer he answered himself.

"41" he said, his voice barely above a whisper. At that I lost it.

"I'm done playing your games!" I shouted and fired.

*Crack*

The sound echoed through the valley and birds flew away from treetops, scared by the sudden thunder.

"W-what?" My anger vanished for a second as I saw the grain of sand sized speck of lead float in the air between us, it span in place, suspended in the air, any snowflake that touched it got obliterated in a millisecond.

*C-Crack*

I fired until I ran out and the characteristic hiss could be heard, while the thermal clip ejected itself and melted the snow it landed in while I was staring at the three levitating bullets in disbelief.

The man regarded the tiny projectiles with disinterest as he gently pushed them away with his index finger one by one.

"I assure you, this is no game" He told me gravely. My anger returned and I attempted to punch him in the face with my left hand.

"Arggh!" I screamed in pain when my fist impacted his face, his skin felt like it was made out of concrete! I collapsed on my knees and caressed my broken hand. He just shook his head.

'Concrete or not, this should do it' I grumbled to myself while I was trying to cope with the pain.

I span around and with a swoosh sound my omni-blade activated and impacted his stomach.

The blade fizzled in and out for a second before entirely breaking apart like the shards of a mirror. I screamed again when it caused a short circuit in my tool and sent me convulsing on the ground.

After what seemed like an eternity the pain receded and I was able to stand up again, the man was still standing before me.

"What are you?" I said what instead of who on purpose. I looked warily at the thing before me.

"The cold, harsh truth that you can't deny, Carter"

I remained silent, this time I noticed that my vision was hazier than before I got here, I couldn't even see ten meters away.

"You're not real, this is all in my head" I declared, shaking my head in an effort to clear it.

"Oh Carter, nothing of this is real, except you, and I'm in there" He walked to me and poked my forehead.

"I am the Truth, Carter. And the truth is that you killed 41 people" He told me in a voice that was supposed to have a calming effect.

"I wanted to save people! That was the best way of doing that! That virus could kill billions in the wrong hands!" I yelled as an excuse, he gravely shook his head.

"Carter, be frank with yourself. Your choice doesn't matter in the grand scheme of things" I frowned at that and looked at him expectantly.

"Even if by some miracle you manage to steal the virus and hand it over to the Alliance, what do you think happens? You know that there are groups like Cerberus seeded all over the Alliance. When, and I'm sure it's not if, they get their hands on it the galaxy will burn" He lectured me like I didn't know any of this.

"That wouldn't be my fault! That's outside of anything that I could do!"

"Yes, you wouldn't be the one at fault. You didn't pull the trigger; you just gave the loaded gun to a lunatic. Your hands would be clean" He berated me with his ever present mocking, yet serious tone. I was at a loss of words at that, I tried to say something, but nothing would come out.

"And saving people? You're no savior. Your talents lie elsewhere" He told me in a flat tone. Our surroundings changed and I found myself in an abandoned hospital room. I glanced around; it was deserted with no living thing in sight.

"Where are we?" I asked cautiously, looking at the man.

A man dove in the doorway and crawled to a bed; he sat up against it and wheezed.

"That's me…" I babbled. The next seconds flew by with sounds of gunfire emanating from a corridor. Suddenly a young woman appeared in the doorway and time froze.

Her frozen body looked distressed, panicked even.

"Remember her?" He asked, I frowned, knowing what he was getting at.

"It was self-defense, it was me or her" I deflected the accusation.

"Are you sure?" He asked in a voice so cold that goosebumps appeared on my arms. The world regained its fluidity and I watched the events unfold.

I-.. I didn't fire on reflex this time.

The woman snapped her head at me and her expression changed dramatically. She lost her footing and fell backwards, once on the ground she crawled up to a wall.

"P-please I… I surrender. Don't hurt me, please! I-I beg you" She threw her weapon at my feet. It clattered on the floor; she pulled her knees to her chest and began sobbing.

The man on the floor was stunned at this development and remained silent.

"Please, s-stop your friend. I didn't want any of this to happen! Please, I-I'm so scared!" She slowly lied down the floor and began hyperventilating.

"Then why are you here?" questioned my hallucination counterpart. The woman continued to cry on the floor in a fetal position.

"I'm just a university student for Christ's sake! I couldn't pay my tuition and take care of my little sister because of the recession! I had to get a job that would pay for both and this was the only one that didn't require any previous experience!" She whimpered. Shepard chose this moment to make an appearance; she entered the room and watched the scene. The woman looked up at the towering form of Shepard and scudded away as soon as she saw that her fist was still charged biotically.

"Please… I just want to go home and forget that this ever happened!" after this she just lost it and broke down in a crying mess. My alterego and Shepard looked at each other with unsure eyes.

"Go…" My alterego said in a weak voice, the woman perked up at this, nose and eye still red from crying.

"R-really?" She sniffled and looked at me with glinting eyes.

"Yes, just… just go before more of you come…" I managed to say, she looked up at Shepard and after seeing her nod, she got up slowly, still shaken by everything. She looked at me and mouthed a silent 'thank you' and left, whimpering and crying, but unharmed. Time froze again and I was rooted in my boots, stunned at the turn of events.

"Killing for yourself is murder" The man noted and looked at me.

"I-… was that true? Her story?" I struggled with my words, my mind still in shock.

"Perhaps, perhaps not. We'll never know for sure. Do you know why?" He looked me in the eye, his eyes carried no emotion, yet that alone told everything. We appeared back when the girl entered the room.

*Crack*

I looked away, but I could still hear the crying.

*Crack* *Crack*

When I opened my eyes our scenery has changed to that of a CIC.

"What about this one?" he asked. I looked around and saw the third person representation of the fighting on the bridge of the slaver frigate.

"Those people enslaved hundreds! They were going to implant those people with electroshock chips, taking away their freedom and individuality in the process! And that's even worse than killing them! What I did was completely justified!" I snapped at him, irritated by the mere thought that he would bring this up. Once again he shook his head and leaned heavily on a nearby console.

"That is your opinion" He stated matter of factly "But you did something not too long ago that makes your 'opinions' and 'sense of right' meaningless" He put his left hand on his heart and the other one in the air. A piercing pain struck through my brain and I got a flashback of my graduation ceremony when I received the insignia of a Corporal.

"Now, what does the normal operating procedure of the Alliance require of soldiers when they are faced with a group of enemy combatants whom are unable to fight back?" He asked me in a soothing voice, but I could sense a disappointed undertone in that sentence.

"… They are to be taken as prisoners of war and be treated as such" I barely managed to spit out the words once the realization kicked in. The scene played out as it happened in reality up until the flashbang.

*BANG*

It exploded and everyone in the room became disoriented. I got up and walked to every slaver rolling on the floor and knocked them unconscious.

I was done.

There was no other word for it. I stood there, mouth gaping and dead silent.

*BANG*

The scene played again, this time the real events. I walked up to every single crewmember and executed them on the spot without an ounce of hesitation or regret.

"Killing for your country is courageous and heroic, especially if it is 'justice'" He saluted me and I felt the spot of my rank insignia burning. After the pain receded our environment was replaced once again, this time with the Captain's quarters.

I wasn't even trying anymore. I stood in place, watching the all too familiar event play in front of my eyes. The knife got knocked out of the captain's hand. It was over and we both knew it. I pointed my knife at him while I backed away for my assault rifle. I picked it up and aimed at him.

I shot him in the foot once and knocked him unconscious while he was gripping his wound. I contacted the others to lend a helping hand, the vision faded and it played again.

I plunged my blade into his heart and smiled as his soul left his body.

"But killing for entertainment is… harmless" He whispered as I got a glimpse of my alterego's slight grin. We came back to the real world and I collapsed onto my knees. I began to silently cry, unable to hold back the tide of emotions anymore.

"I didn't-… I could-… I failed…"

"Do you feel like a hero yet?"

I didn't answer, I couldn't, I didn't want to. I just wanted it to be over, to end it all! I-I became someone- no, something else. An animal, a monster, a mindless madman! I closed my eyes and recounted the past half year.

I failed my past self, who would have stopped at the very beginning.

I failed everyone who taught me how to do the right thing.

I failed the very thing I swore an oath to.

But most importantly, I failed to look past everything… to see the truth before me… I-I failed myself…

"The time's up, Carter" The demanding voice of the man called for me. I opened my eyes and shakily got to my feet; I stopped crying and faced the man.

"The harsh reality is that 41 people are dead, because of you. This was only the beginning of your 'journey', imagine how many more would be lowered into a grave if you don't stop? Dozens? Hundreds? Thousands?" His gaze never left me as he reached for his holster.

"The bill is known and the price is high" He took out a replica of my Paladin and I could look down its barrel perfectly.

"Now, one life for forty-one is hardly a fair deal… but it's the most you can offer, so it will have to do" I closed my eyes and I was ready to accept the punishment rightfully sentenced upon me.

"Whatever comes after this for you, Carter, don't be too hard on yourself"

I could hear the safety switch being disabled and I closed out everything else that could disturb my sudden feel of tranquility and peace.

"Wait"

A sudden voice interrupted us and I opened my eyes once again to see that a third person had joined us.

"Shepard?" I vaguely asked the young woman before me, even the man seemed surprised by her presence.

"Not quite" She shook her head and with each motion her form morphed into someone else. First the Captain, then Sheffield and Zhang before settling back to Shepard.

"Then who are you and why are you taking Shepard's form?" I asked weakly as the dizziness that appeared earlier was still around in my head. The woman took a step closer so that we formed a near perfect triangle.

"A voice of reason, as for why this form? Who was the person you could always count on? Who was there beside you at every step?" She asked me. I looked down on the snowy white ground for a moment before responding.

"You" She was right, whatever happened, whoever died or lived, Shepard and I were the centre of the spiderweb.

"Correct, your mind was already in shambles when you woke up and realized what you think had happened. You subconsciously searched for something that could serve as solid ground beneath your shaky feet, an anchor in the storm if you will" She nodded and after a brief pause her gaze wandered into mine.

"And when you two met, that idea had rooted itself in your mind, that's why you two are always together" I felt a surge of pain in my temples and I put my hand against it. A flashback appeared, this time it was the recruitment office where we both chose to sign up to the marines. I shook it away and concentrated on her.

"As for your punishment, you don't need one from us" She indicated herself and the man. I felt a sudden wave of confusion and anger wash over me.

"What are you suggesting?" The man asked as he lowered the pistol. Shepard looked up on the cloudy sky for a moment before explaining.

"I do not believe that this is real" She looked at us with such conviction that it was hard to find words for me.

"What?" I asked in bewilderment, it certainly felt all too real.

"If I am right, then you have never even left that car, let alone reality"

"How?" Was all that I could say, this was already too much for me…

"We know that in some cases, before death, the brain still functions for a few minutes, in those minutes brain activity goes into a frenzy. Some scientists believe that the brain plays out all of the memories that we have collected in our lives, right until the moment of our deaths, there it starts again and again, creating a feedback loop that goes on for infinity" She monologued. "That's where you come in" She looked at me.

"But these aren't my memories…" I mumbled incoherently, it was getting harder and harder for me to stay awake.

"Now comes the second part of the theory…" She looked up and around, taking in the environment.

"William Carter… Welcome to Hell" She announced grandiosely.

"What?... How?" It was too much, I was getting disoriented.

"Not how. Why!" She beamed at me "You did something in your life that your subconscious did not condone, and now you're paying for it" She poked my heart with her index finger; I stumbled back, even though I didn't feel any physical force being applied.

"Where is all the fire and molten sulphur at then if you're correct?" I dubiously asked her, not really believing her.

"Do the surroundings even matter if the punishment is delivered?" She waved away my doubts.

"What is his punishment then?" The man asked curiously, he holstered his pistol and decided to hear his counterpart's argument.

"Oh, if I'm right then this is his punishment"

"William Carter" She addressed me and I tried to focus on her as much as I could "You have not been cursed with physical pain or suffering"

"You got a body and mind that is only good at killing and causing suffering with a soul that can do neither" I got a flashback from when I fought with Sheffield "And no matter how hard you try, you can't do anything else. Your mind will construct universes that will put you in the spot of a hero, only to see you fail each time. And I have the suspicion that if you try to pull the trigger, kick away the chair or swallow the pills you will just wake up in a new world with all of your memories and are forced to start again, and again, and again for all eternity until you learn one final lesson"

"Will, that is your damnation, your very own, self-made personal hell"

An oppressive silence had descended upon us that constricted my throat. The man seemed to lose focus and I began shaking my head profusely with a hand on my temples.

"No… no, no, this can't be happening. You're just my imagination!" I shakily denied, even though I couldn't really tell the difference between reality and imagination by this point.

"Everything is your imagination. It's sad really, to see a person be a prisoner in a cell made by his own mind, with a key in his hand for the door, yet he doesn't realize it while he's clawing at the bars" Shepard shook her head and shrugged.

"That is a well-crafted theory but the physical truth contradicts it" The man narrowed his eyes at Shepard "Carter, you can't live a lie forever. You must choose while you still can" He turned to look me in the eyes, almost in perfect sync with Shepard.

"He's right, Will. The truth has two faces and you must decide which one you're willing to believe in"

I couldn't handle it. I looked between them back and forth with glassy eyes, breathing shallowly. After a while I had to blink and did so subconsciously. When I opened my eyes I saw my pistol on the white ground between the three of us. I slowly stumbled over to it and shakily picked it up. I took a second to inspect the weapon with empty eyes; I checked the ammo counter and saw that the gun had a single round left in it. I looked up at the pair before me and not a second later a piercing migraine erupted from my temples and I began hearing things.

"Do it" "What should I do?" "Kyra, Kyra Shepard" "I needed a clean slate" "Do it" "I'm joining up with you!" "Watch and learn"

My hand began wobbling lightly as I subconsciously raised the pistol.

"Do it!" "Welcome to the Alliance" "I was always an idealist" "You deserve nothing less" "Outstanding work!" "Thanks for making me who I am"

The gun was slowly pointed at Shepard and I could faintly feel a cold metal circle at my right temple and the wobbling increased tenfold.

"When will it end?" "This is your Hell for all eternity" "This is all in my head" "Nothing here is real" "Do you feel like a hero yet?" "Do it!"

The gun almost fell out of my weak hands when I aimed at the man.

"Do it!" "Make us proud out there" "Please! I just want to go home and forget that this ever happened!" "How many have you killed?" "41 confirmed combat kills, impressive" "What about now?" "You're a failure"

I switched targets and shut my teary eyes as more and more voices spoke in the back of my mind until finally the gun rested in my hands and I opened my eyes.

"Do it"

"Do it!"

"DO IT!"

*CRACK*

A gunshot echoed through the valley one last time as the pistol it was discharged from fell to the ground and it broke into a thousand pieces like a dropped wine glass.

"Whatever happens after this Carter, don't be too hard on yourself"

"This is your story after all"

I mumbled the words nigh incoherently and observed the man.

"Whatever you say Carter" The figure looked down at his chest. A gaping hole was present in the place where his heart would have been with cracks spreading steadily from it all across his body and further.

"But remember, if a man is presented with the irrefutable truth that they can't accept, they create their own" He looked around, indicating the black place and the white cracks all over it.

"Congratulations, after all you've done, all the lives you've taken, you can tell yourself that you're still the victim" was his last words as the cracks encompassed everything and all that remained was heavenly white light.


	11. Notice

Hello there people, I updated to say that I officially discontinue this story, but don't worry, the moment this is up I'd have already posted the first chapter for a redux version of this story. I won't go into the whys of my decision to restart the story here but the AN of the redux will.

I won't delete this story because it seems people actually liked it but I won't update it anymore. With explanations out of the way, see you there :).


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